Source Code
by LittleMagpie
Summary: Birkhoff always thought that he was the best; that if God was in the details then he was a God. But when a myterious blonde woman returns to the US; everything begins to change. Birkhoff/OC
1. Prologue

**A/N: I do not own Nikita. Please review if you like this prologue, I need to know if there is interest in the story. It is a Birkhoff/OC fic, though he does not appear in this chapter.**

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><p>Only the clicking of her fingers whizzing over the keyboards could be heard in her apartment. The sounds of the street had long since faded, and could barely be heard behind the glass. The steady hum from her computer and the clicks of her fingers as they whizzed across the keyboard were the sole sounds in her apartment. The curtains were closed tight, so the only light breaking the sheet of darkness was the soft, steady glow of the computer screens.<p>

Her eyes scanned the screens, hunting for specific details. She muttered the information back to herself, as if she had seen it all before. Finally she zoned in on one little, minuscule detail.

"Got you," she whispered.

She saved the information and then shut down her computer, making sure that all traces of her escapade were gone from the other servers. She didn't want anyone to know what she was up to, not yet at least. The element of surprise was what she was going for this time.

Grabbing a small handgun, she walked silently to her bedroom, opening the curtains a little bit on her way. While she was confident that no one was watching her, and they probably never would, she didn't want to raise any flags. Even though she was getting ready to abandon this place, she still needed to make a clean getaway.

That was her life now; running away. She had to move from place to place otherwise she wouldn't get anywhere. She knew that if she was caught; she'd never see the light of day again. The only advantage that she had was that they didn't know her real name- her true identity. 'They' only knew her handles, fake names that she created and purposely left behind to mark her work; Phantom, Magpie, NightCrawler, to name a few. They hadn't put together the puzzle pieces yet. She was one person, but they didn't know that. Certain places had more of a leg up than others; some didn't even know that she was a woman.

Breathing in, she closed her eyes and blocked out the world. Tomorrow was another day. Tomorrow, she would return to the United States. She had to stop running now, she had to come home.

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><p><em>Back at Langley…<em>

A CIA operative got up from his desk, a file folder in hand, and walked over to the elevator. He walked over to another desk and handed it to the man sitting behind it.

"Can you bring this up to Barbara? I have a few other things to finish down here," he said, holding out the folder.

"No problem, I'm about to leave anyways. I'll make sure she gets it," the other man replied.

As the two men were talking, the computer that the first man had left on started to flash. For a brief moment, the screen turned read and 'Warning' was written across it. It was so fast that even if the man had still been sitting there, he would not have noticed it. Unbeknownst to the entire CIA, that brief moment was a major data breach. Someone had just gained access to some very high-security files. That someone was incredibly dangerous as of the time that the screen flashed.

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><p>A woman with shiny, pin-straight, white blonde hair walked out of the airport, her black stilettos making clicking noises as she did so. Her only piece of luggage, a non-descript thing, trailed behind her. The rest of it was already packed away; she had been planning this for awhile. She hailed a cab, gave the driver an address, and was quickly out of there.<p>

When he dropped her off, she walked out and towards a building, then knocked.

"Hi, I was supposed to move into the apartment today; do you have the keys? I was told by Ethan that you would have them," the woman said when the door opened.

"Yes of course, here you go. Let him know if there's anything that you need," the man replied.

"Thank you," she said, taking the keys from him. She turned to walk away and when the man blinked; she was gone.

She disappeared like a puff of smoke; there one moment, gone the next.

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><p>The woman rounded a corner, and looked up to the apartment building in front of her. She nodded to herself and made her way up to the unit that she had purchased. Putting the key in the lock, she entered the apartment. Once the door was shut and locked once more, she took off the sunglasses hiding her eyes.<p>

Her piercing grey eyes surveyed the apartment and she muttered to herself:

"America's not ready for me. Not in the slightest."

She threw some papers onto the counter and walked towards the window. These papers were the only things that held her true identity on them. The name etched onto the headings of every page was Imogen Grace. No last name—nothing. And she intended to keep it that way. Too much was at stake now.


	2. Move

**A/N: I was going to update on Sunday, but I decided to do so today. It's still a little short, but I promise that the chapters will get longer as the story progresses. I just need to establish a base. By the way, can anyone guess what song this chapter name was inspired by? (it's the actual song title). **

**Thanks for all of the reviews! I'm on lunch break right now so I don't have the time to reply to them, but just know that I appreciate all of the reviews/story alerts, etc. :) I will try and inbox people who reviewed later today!**

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><p>The next day, Imogen was pacing around her apartment. She had finally made her move and returned to the States after almost 6 whole years of being away. It seemed like only yesterday that she had to make a run for it; to protect herself. Now that she had come to terms with what happened, for the most part anyways, it was time to make some big moves. First thing that she had to do was to get back into the business.<p>

It was dangerous to go back, she knew that. She could be caught and then sent to jail, or to death row. But the thing was…Imogen needed t do this. That was why she had hacked into the CIA the other day; she needed intel on the person she was hunting, and one other person. The keys to her plan needed to fall together quickly; otherwise she wouldn't be able to pull this off.

Shaking her head, Imogen stopped pacing and threw open the doors to her closet, preparing for her next step. She had to find her contact again; it was crucial to the rest of her plan.

_Four hours later…_

Imogen walked around the abandoned park, waiting to see if her contact would show up. They had decided to schedule a dead drop, just so that things could be kept simple and there was no chance of a screw up.

When she turned around to walk back across the park, she noticed a brown envelope sitting on the bench. Instinctively, Imogen knew that it was for her. It helped that it was in an abandoned park as well. She quickly walked over the bench, picked up the envelope and left the park. She could wait to read it; the less time she spent out in the open, the better. Something told her that she was on a ticking clock; that her time was going to run out.

When she got back to her apartment, she closed the curtains, turned on a small light beside the couch, and ripped open the envelope. As she pulled out the pages, her eyes skimmed over everything, trying to find a trace of any listening devices. While she trusted her contact, she had to make sure. After all, she had been away for quite some time, and so much could have changed.

The papers were a bunch of news reports and death notices. Feeling a little overwhelmed, Imogen closed her eyes and took a breath.

"_Get out now Gracie! You need to leave and save yourself—if you come back they will most certainly catch you and put you in jail. Promise me you'll get out, promise…" her father was lying on a hospital bed, clutching at his daughter's pale hands. _

_The young girl, maybe about 18 or 19 years of age, tried not to cry as she saw her father's strength leaving him._

"_I promise Da. I'll go," she whispered._

"_Go back to the house and lift up the floorboards in the kitchen. There are some things in there that you need," her dad said softly._

_Despite the fact that she had a feeling her father was keeping something from her and that he knew this would happen—she didn't question it. He was a dying man, and she didn't want to upset him._

"_Do I have to? I don't want to leave you here Da, not all on your own," she said, still attempting not to cry._

_Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard outside._

"_GO!" her dad yelled, though it only came out as a whisper, "Out the window. NOW!"_

_She let go of her father's hands, whispered her goodbye, and went over to the window. She turned to take one last look at her father and saw men in black suits coming in the door. She jumped out the window and into the night. She was safe…but her father….she never found out exactly what happened to him._

"Until now," Imogen whispered to herself, opening her eyes. She took one last look at the final death notice and hid the contents of the envelope; making sure that they were spread around the apartment in different hiding places. Having everything in one place was a mistake; if anyone found it, she was screwed. But by splitting everything up, she was making herself safer…well, safer at least.

Once that was done, Imogen collapsed onto the floor, unable to keep it together. Just reading everything that had happened in her absence was tough; her whole family was dead now. _It was a mistake to leave the country, _she thought to herself. _I should've stayed with my father, no matter what was about to happen._

"_Promise me you'll get out…promise me."_

Imogen could still hear her dad's voice in her head like that day in the hospital was only yesterday. As much as she tried to forget that day, it was ingrained in her memory. Especially the men who came into the room the moment before she left. She didn't know their names, but she figured out that they were the police from what the papers in the envelope said.

Berating herself for falling apart, Imogen clench her jaw and then stood up. It didn't matter now, what was the past, was the past. The most important thing was to put everything in motion. She had to make things right or at least try to do so.

Pulling out blueprints to a local bank, she started to plan the details of her "attack". She needed to draw attention to herself if she wanted to find the cops who were in the hospital room. Imogen knew full well that if she was the one to do this, those cops would be there. She didn't know how she knew this…it was just something that she knew in her gut.

After spending time planning this, she left her apartment to do one last thing. She was confident that she would succeed, but if she didn't do this one little thing before she went to the bank, she would regret not doing it.

Imogen pulled up to a quiet graveyard, passing by the many headstones, not really paying attention to the names. She knew what she was looking for, thanks to a picture from the envelope. But as she passed one gravestone, she bumped into the side and nearly fell over. She looked down to see whose it was that she had bumped into.

_Daniel Munroe_

_March 23__rd__, 1979 – July 17__th__, 2007_

_Beloved Son_

"I'm sorry Daniel," she said, then got up and kept moving.

Finally she reached the back of the graveyard to a simple headstone. She kneeled down, and looked at the inscription on it. She couldn't make out the last name, but she knew this was her father's grave.

_Peter -_

_January 1__st__, 1955- October 10__th__, 2004_

There was no message on his, unlike that man Daniel's that she had stumbled upon. It wasn't surprising, not really, since he wouldn't have had family bury him.

"Hi Da," she said softly. "I know you didn't want me to come back, but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't. I know…I know I'm putting myself in danger…but there's just nothing else out there for me. I've spent most of my time away working with computers, just like you sued to teach me. I wish you could see it, I think you'd be proud of how far I've come. But that doesn't matter Da. I have a plan, and I just wanted to say that before I put everything in action. I can't tell you, I don't want anyone hearing. I know no one is here right now, but you always said that we shouldn't take chances if they weren't necessary."

She closed her eyes for a moment, letting one solitary tear escape. This was the last time she would allow herself to show any weakness…she couldn't afford it anymore.

"Goodbye Da," she said, turning away from the gravestone.

As she left the graveyard, she noticed bullets near Daniel's grave. Shaking her head, Imogen continued on her way. She couldn't waste time worrying about things that didn't concern her. She had to focus on her mission.


	3. Riot

**A/N: Well aren't you readers lucky! I had some free time today so I was able to crank out another chapter. Thanks to everyone who alerted and/or favourited this story. Now for review responses!**

**AnaUdinov: It was curious, wasn't it? The mystery will stay around for a little while yet**

**AdayaMarie: I'm glad that you are enjoying it! I love my avatar as well, I'm collecting Birkhoff pictures at the moment :P**

**Andraya TheLat: I hope you like this update as well! I hope that this story gets even more interesting :)**

**xBlossom: Thanks for both of the reviews! I'm really happy you like Imogen's character. She might be like Nikita, but how much so? :) I tried to make it so I didn't have to outright say when it was set; I didn't plan on it being set during the pilot, just fit! When Birkhoff and Imogen meet…well you'll just have to wait and see. ;)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Nikita, the CW does. I only own Imogen and other characters you do not recognize.**

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><p>Imogen drove past the abandoned park on her way to the bank. As she was passing, she noticed a black vehicle—an SUV. She slowed down as she passed, and noticed duck tape lying on and around an old, rusting, rocking horse. She shook her head, wondering what exactly happened. It seemed like someone got duck taped to the rocking horse, but she wasn't exactly sure.<p>

"It doesn't matter, just keep going," she muttered, driving away towards the bank.

She had planned out exactly what she needed to do once she reached her destination, but she also knew that she had to stake out the bank for at least a few hours before she struck.

"Good planning equals good execution," she muttered as she turned another corner. She parked her car in an abandoned garage about two blocks away from the bank—she needed it hidden while she dealt with this, or the cops she was trying to bait would find it and ruin her escape.

As she got out of the car and checked her weapons, she ran through the plan in her head. All she wanted to do was make the cops shake in their cheap uniforms and bad guns; just to let them know that she was still around and they were going to pay. She didn't want to kill them, not really.

"I'm going to make you suffer. Every single one of you," she said determinedly, walking in an alley beside the bank. She approached a blank wall and looked up. Just like the blueprints had shown, there was a vent at the top of the wall, which would serve as her entrance into the bank. If the blueprints were up to date, she had a direct entrance into any single place in the bank that she chose.

As Imogen gripped the bricks and started to climb, she quickly went through her top 3 places to exit the vent. The women's bathroom was her first choice; it wouldn't be suspicious at all if she just walked out of there. The other two weren't nearly as good: a storage closet and then the men's bathroom. Imogen just hoped and prayed that she would be able to get through the vents through the right way and come out in the women's bathroom. That would give her time to start some chaos before the cops would turn up. If she was suspicious right off the bat; her entire plan would crumble and she would land in jail or end up dead.

"Do or die time," she said as she wrenched off the cover to the vent and crawled inside.

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><p><em>A few hours later…<em>

Imogen had spent the last few hours crawling around the vents, just surveying the layout. Despite the fact that she got a hold of the blueprints for this bank, she still needed to examine the security. That wasn't included in the blueprints and it was an essential part of her mission. Finally, she made her way over to the vent that would open up into the last stall in the women' bathroom. She quietly unscrewed it and maneuvered her body down, taking the vent with her and sliding it back into place. The chances of anyone checking the vent were slim, but she had to be as safe as she possibly could.

She felt for her knives up her sleeves and the gun behind her back. Steeling herself, she made her way out of the bathroom and into the open. It was time to cause her chaos.

Walking out into the main lobby of the bank, she lifted her gun out of its hiding place and pointed it at a teller.

"Open the safe. Now," she said.

The bank teller looked quite nervous and just stood up and walked towards the safe. Imogen looked away for a moment, and up at the security cameras. She turned her gun and shot the two near her, not disabling them but just shaking them and calling attention to what was happening. The other people in the lobby were just civilians, and like they do, were cowering on the floor. What no one else in the bank noticed was that someone on the street saw the situation inside the bank, and got on the phone to make a call.

A few minutes later, and the teller was filling up bags for Imogen as she waited with her gun pointed towards them.

"Hurry up," she yelled. "Get a MOVE ON!"

She didn't really need the teller to hurry up, because she still wanted to be in the bank by the time the cops got there so she could taunt them as she left…but still, she had to sell the act and someone "robbing" a bank wouldn't be slow at it. They'd want to be in and out as fast as possible.

_Just sell the act,_ Imogen thought to herself. _Sell the act and everything will be fine._

As soon as the teller handed Imogen the bags, the front doors of the bank burst open to reveal a bunch of cops. They were dressed exactly like the ones who were in the hospital the day that Imogen left her father.

"Well, well, well…" one of them said, laughing slightly. "You couldn't hide form us forever. You made a mistake, and now it's time to pay for everything that you have done."

Imogen turned away from the teller, who ran and hide behind a desk.

"I don't think I will be, that's where you and I differ. Today was a warning—I'm back. I'm causing some chaos out here and there's nothing that you can do to stop me," she said, pointing her gun at the cops. Her hand shook slightly, she didn't to kill them. She wasn't a killer, no matter what anyone might say. Nevertheless she had to make an impact on them today…

Imogen fired her gun to spaces near the cops, and then ran back towards the women's bathroom, and to her escape. The cops were running after her, but once she managed to climb up into the vents; they stopped, realizing that their efforts this time were fruitless. They would get her next time, they decided. Little Imogen might be all grown up, but she couldn't evade them forever.

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><p><em>Meanwhile, at Division…<em>

Percy was in a bad mood. Operation Black Arrow had been botched, by none other than Nikita. He only hoped that his agents would be able to track her down and eliminate her as a threat. The damage that she could cause… Percy didn't want to think about it. He turned on the news to distract himself, and was surprised.

Someone…someone out there had pulled off a bank heist and narrowly avoided the cops. There was no word on the footage; all they said was that the person who caused it was a young woman. Curious as to whom this mysterious individual might be, Percy called Michael in.

"Get me footage from the bank that was robbed today. There's something of interest there. Keep it quiet; don't raise a fuss to anyone. I'm serious here; don't breath a word to anybody, not until we're sure what we are dealing with" he said.

"I'm on it…possible recruit?" Michael replied.

"Quite possibly," Percy said, staring back at the paused news report. "First thing we have to do is establish who exactly it was. They may be insignificant, nobody worth bringing in…"

Without saying another word, Michael turned and left Percy's office, leaving Percy staring at the news report; as if he expected the person to just appear out of nowhere. When Michael reached a computer he got to work in sifting through footage. Normally the tech stuff would be down to Birkhoff, but this was a possible new recruit; or at least someone to watch. That meant that it fell to him to find out exactly what the situation was.

It didn't take long to find the security footage of the bank, so Michael took a quick look at it before bringing it back to Percy. He was right; it was a young woman who had caused it. But she was small…and blonde.

"Not much of a threat...but whatever," he muttered to himself.

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><p>Imogen paced around her apartment yet again. She didn't think that she made enough of an impact on the cops.<p>

"I need to make a bigger splash here," she muttered. "But what can I do?"

She sat down and tapped the end of a pencil on the counter while she thought…

"_Remember Gracie…nothing gets people's attention like fire…"_

Imogen smirked to herself. She just thought of the perfect thing to do to call as much attention to her as possible. First things first, she had to pick her target. It was time to bring out the Phantom one more time; this had to be pulled of perfectly and that required a good location.

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><p><strong>Please leave a review, they're greatly appreciated!<strong>


	4. Burn It To The Ground

**A/N: I'm getting really fast! Probably because it's the weekend now, and I'm procrastinating on homework. After this chapter, they should be getting a bit longer in length; I've decided that I have enough of a base now! I hope everyone likes this new chapter, and please review! Thanks to all of those who have been reviewing so far, it's really making me want to update as fast as possible. Also, this chapter's title is inspired by the song **_**Burn it to the Ground**_** by Nickelback. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Nikita! **

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><p>Over the next two weeks Imogen gathered all of the explosives and gasoline that she could get her hands on. If this was going to work, it had to be huge.<p>

"They aren't easily scared, I know that now," she said to herself. "But this…this will be big."

Imogen smirked to herself, and just imagined the looks on their faces when she burned down the garage where they held their cruisers. Sure, she could've picked the actual police station, but that would ruin all of the fun. She didn't want things to end here; she wanted to make them suffer for as long as her father did.

_10 years earlier…_

_Imogen was shivering like a leaf. She was soaked to the bone and she only had a thin blanket to cover her body. Her father guarded her and stayed awake, sitting near the small fire that burned on the ground of the dark alley that they were hiding in. For almost as long as Imogen cared to remember, they were running. Her father never told her why; she was only 13 years old. She was way too young to handle the truth, in his opinion._

"_Ana, I can't put that burden on her…she can't know, not yet. What should I do? We cannot keep running forever, no matter how hard we try," he whispered, staring down at his hands. "I'm sick…I can't keep doing this. She'll be on her own soon enough, and I need to know what I can do now to help her later. Help me Ana love. Please, help me help our little girl."_

_Her father thought that she was asleep, but thanks to the fact that she was cold and wet; Imogen heard the entire thing._

_8 years earlier…_

"_Come on Gracie, you have to work at this!" her father said, watching his only daughter learn how to hack and deal with computers. _

"_Why do I even need to know this?" she asked, frustrated._

"_I'll tell you when you're older Gracie," he said. "I promise."_

"_You promise a lot of things Da, but they never seem to come true!" she yelled. "How can I just go in blind?"_

"_I'll tell you when you're old enough; I swear on your mother's grave," he said seriously._

"_Fine," she replied stonily, turning back to the computer screen._

"Enough," she berated herself. "Focus on your mission. Tomorrow…tomorrow it burns."

She got up and started to transport all of the explosives to her car. If all went well, she would have the garage torched within ten minutes and she would be gone. The cops…wouldn't even know what hit them. She planned on making a call to the station about 1 minute before she blew the place up; just to let them know that she was not going to stop. But they wouldn't find her…she was like a ghost after all.

The next day, Imogen was quick in getting up. It was nearing the time when everyone would be at the station. Well, not everyone, but the cops she wanted would be. She wanted to have the explosives and gasoline set up right after everyone exited the garage. After that, it was only a matter of time. She decided to go with a timed device; just so she could be clear and able to watch the cops run out of the station. If she truly wanted to, she could have set the explosives off manually; but then she would miss the show and be focused on getting out of the garage.

As she parked her car in an alleyway near the garage, she tied up her trademark blonde hair and smirked. It was time to make them shake in their boots. She grabbed the explosives, timed device and gasoline; hiding the explosives in a backpack. She had no room in the pack for everything; and she figured that no one would think twice about someone carrying gasoline.

"Just an innocent girl, bringing gas to her car," she muttered as she left the alley.

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><p>"Percy!" Michael yelled.<p>

"Yes?" he asked.

"The woman, the one who robbed the bank…She was just seen walking down a street with a black backpack and a container that looks like it could contain gasoline," replied Michael, trying to stay as quiet as he could. The recruits were having their "workouts" right nearby, and they hadn't reached the safety of Percy's office.

"Alright. Any word on what she's going to burn? That's what I think she's doing, especially after yesterday," he said, walking briskly towards his office, Michael hot on his heels.

"Nothing. But my best bet would be the police station, or the garage next door where they keep the cruisers. Those are the only buildings that have any real importance on that street," he said in a hurry.

"Make a call, warning them. Don't tell the m who you are or where you are. Just warn them and then hang up. Try and time it so they catch her after the fact. We need to see if she can do follow through before we bring her in," Percy replied, dismissing Michael.

"I'm on it sir," Michael answered, leaving the room.

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><p>Imogen peeked inside the garage, making sure that the coast was clear before she fully climbed inside. It was void of any person, but there were many police cruisers parked.<p>

"Perfect timing," she muttered to herself as she set up the explosives.

They were all grouped into lines, perfect placed so that once the timed device triggered and started the first explosive, all of the explosives and the gasoline connecting them would go off; like a game of dominoes when the person flicks the first one over.

Five minutes later, and Imogen was done setting everything up. She set the device to detonate in 2 minutes, and then left the building; ready to make her call. Once out, she headed over to the other street, picked up the receiver for a payphone and dialed.

"There she is!" someone yelled.

Imogen dropped the phone and whipped around. Just down the street from her was a cop, pointing in her direction. She silently cursed and began to run in the opposite direction; she had to get out of there. Luckily, she had had a lot of practice in running; she had spent most of her life doing it. Just then, she realized that there was another cop in the direction that she was running.

"Shit," she muttered; as soon as she realized that her only escape was the direction in which the garage was, and it was due to explode very soon.

Shaking her head, she ran towards it. If the cops had known that she was going to be there, they _must _have also known that the place was going to blow. Imogen was banking on the chance that they could be too scared to follow her.

Just then, the garage exploded, and despite the fact that Imogen covered her face with her arms, she was blasted back and fell onto the street. She could vaguely see the flames coming out of the windows, and the two cops running towards her. As they grabbed her, she realized that they weren't the ones who were in the hospital that day she left her father. _Thank god for that_, she thought to herself, _I can deal with these guys._

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><p>When Imogen awoke, she was in a bare room; nothing but the bed she was lying in, a desk…a chair and some sort of bedside table. The walls looked like they were made out of concrete, or metal; she couldn't really tell. She sat up on the bed, causing the covers to fall off. Her arms were both bandaged up, from the wrists to her elbows. Imogen it was from the blast, since she tried to protect herself. The back of her head itched and she reached up to scratch it, only to realize that it too was bandaged. Just then, a tall man in a dark suit walked in.<p>

"All alone in the world, and you, Imogen…try to blow up a police garage. Nice try, but according to these papers," he said, smacking a clipboard onto the bed, "died from the blast and burns of the very explosion that you caused."

"I'm not dead," she spat out, staring him straight in the face. "I'm very much alive. And I'm not afraid of you."

"Oh yes, you _are_ alive" he replied. "My name's Michael and I work for the government. You've been granted a second chance."


	5. Mockingbird

**A/N: Sorry about the delay, been having a very busy past few days! This chapter is during "Kill Jill". Also, I'm having trouble replying to reviews, so I'm sorry that there hasn't been a response from me (I will try to get some out soon). Just know that I have read all of them, and I really appreciate it. Finally, this chapter's title was inspired by/named after the song Mockingbird by Eminem. Don't normally listen to him, but I found this song while searching for something else-and it was perfect!  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: Don't own Nikita. Should realize that by now, yes? If I did, Birkhoff wouldn't be alone!**

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><p><em>A second chance<em>, she thought.

"What is involved?" she asked, masking her uncertainty.

"In short…you'll learn to serve your country; not just yourself, as you've obviously been doing," replied Michael.

"Fine…when do I start?" she said, staring him directly in the eye. _Not serve myself, my ass. Better use this to my advantage, _she thought to herself.

"Soon," was all that Michael said before leaving her on her own.

Imogen closed her eyes, trying to think of exactly what she could do to make the best of this situation. She couldn't go after the cops…not in here. She was obviously going to be forced to be here for as long as they needed her; she wasn't stupid.

_Maybe whatever they have to teach me…I can use against the cops,_ she thought. _Not like they can teach me much though. Combat maybe, but nothing with computers…I've got a handle on that already._

So she could use their lessons for her own gain…now the real question was, should she let on how much she already knows? Maybe it wasn't a good idea, at least until she got to know this place. After all, they could just like those cops and use that information. She could put herself in danger.

"Imogen," a voice said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

A woman had walked into the room, without her noticing. She looked quite serious; no smile on her face, no glint in her eyes, and the clothes that she wore all screamed serious.

"What?" she said.

"Manners," the woman said. "My name's Amanda and I think you and I need to have a talk before you start here."

"What do you want?" Imogen asked, looking at Amanda.

"I want to know all about you. What your home life was like, how you came to blow up a building…Why you're alone in the world," Amanda answered, examining Imogen's expressions.

_Why I'm alone…_ Imogen thought. _I'm never alone, not really._

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><p><em>15 years ago…<em>

_"Da, where's Mama?" an eight year old Imogen asked._

_"I don't know Gracie love," he replied, looking away from her._

_Her father was lying. He did, in fact, know where Ana was. She was six feet under, if she even got that far. But Peter just couldn't tell his little girl that she was never going to see her mother again. _

_"She's going to be fine," he whispered to his little girl, pulling her into his arms. "Mama's fine."_

_"Why is Mama away?" she asked, looking up at her dad._

_"I don't know Gracie love," he said. "I'm sorry."_

* * *

><p>Imogen snapped out of the memory and looked at Amanda.<p>

"I'm not alone," she replied stonily.

"Of course you are alone. After all, what would a young woman be doing blowing up a building if she wasn't alone? If you weren't alone, you'd be out partying, like the _normal_ women," Amanda said, smiling slightly. "You were abandoned, left to fend for yourself. Always running; never able to take a breather. Where did you come from?"

"When a man and a woman love each other very much…" Imogen started, smirking.

"Don't be a smartass, Imogen. It's not beautiful," Amanda replied sternly.

"Maybe I don't want to be beautiful," Imogen shot back.

"Deep inside, every woman wants to be beautiful; she doesn't need to say it," said Amanda.

"Well, I'm not _every_ woman, now am I?" she said, still smirking.

"You would do well to be polite. You won't survive long unless you obey," Amanda said, voice turning deadly.

Just then there was a knock on the door.

"Percy's called for you Amanda," a guard said, standing outside the door.

"On my way," she replied, then turned on her heel and left Imogen by herself.

Later that night, Imogen was plagued with dreams; if you could even call them that.

_ "Mama, I had a bad dweam," said a tiny girl, clutching a teddy bear._

_"It's ok, Mama's here. What happened beautiful girl?" her mother asked, holding out her arms. The little girl ran into them and buried her face into her mother's clothing._

_"The bad men were chasing me," the little girl mumbled._

_"It's ok baby girl, it's ok," her mother said softly, cradling her._

* * *

><p><em>The same little girl, albeit a bit older, was sitting down on the ground of a dirty alleyway, cowering in the corner. A tall man stood partway down the alley, looking towards the entrance.<em>

_"Ana…" he whispered. _

_The man stood there for awhile, but the woman he was calling, Ana, never came._

* * *

><p><em>A young woman sat on a plane, in the back seat where no one would pay attention to her. She sat near the window, tears in her eyes. She said nothing to anyone, not the passengers or the flight attendants. The only thing she said as they left the US was four words.<em>

_"I 'll miss you Da," she whispered, looking sadly at the disappearing land._

* * *

><p><em>A man and a woman were yelling at each other in the tiny living room of a dingy house, small toys littering the floor.<em>

_ "She doesn't deserve to grow up with this hanging over her head!" yelled the woman._

_"Then what do you suppose we do? We can't get out of it; that brings her in," said the man, trying to stay calm._

_"YOU are the one who brought this on us! I have half a mind to leave with her right now and never come back," the woman yelled back._

_"But you won't," the man whispered. "You won't leave."_

_"Why shouldn't I?" she said, losing her steam._

_"You won't leave because you know that she deserves to have both parents around her; no matter what. You also know that leaving won't fix anything. Our family is marked, that's a fact love," the man said calmly. _

_He looked at the door, and saw a tiny little girl clutching a teddy bear to her body, lips quivering._

_"Come on Gracie, Mama's just needs a minute," the man said, holding out his hand to the girl._

_The girl took his hand and they walked down the hall to the little girl's bedroom. When the girl drifted back off to sleep, the man pulled a little box out of his pockets. He opened it to reveal a necklace with one charm, a mockingbird._

_"This is for you baby girl," her father whispered. "I'll always be with you in your prayers, no matter what happens to us."_

_He clasped the necklace around her neck, kissed her forehead, and left the room._

* * *

><p>Imogen shot up in her bed, sweat causing her clothes to stick to her body. She lifted her left hand to her neck, feeling for the chain of a necklace. It was the same one that her father had given her on the night that she heard him and her mother arguing—the first time. Now there was a collection of charms, each with a significant meaning, or tied to an event in her life.<p>

"I miss you so much," she whispered.

Imogen decided that she wasn't going to show any weakness during this "second chance" that she was getting. She would bid her time, learn what little she could, and then get out and find the people who destroyed her family. She got up out of the bed and started pacing around the room. She would have to find an escape route of this…facility, as she was sure that they wouldn't just let people leave whenever they wanted to. Imogen didn't know exactly who these people were, or what kinds of people they were, but she knew that she would have to play her cards close to her chest and not give anything away.

Her father would be proud at how good she had gotten with not betraying her emotions; he used to always say that they would get you into trouble. She had disregarded his rules before, while she was overseas, but she got burned. Whoever it was that she let her guard down with would always seem to leave her, without notes or anything.

"Enough," she berated herself. "No more showing any weakness. You are strong."

Hours upon hours passed and she just walked around the room. Sometimes she would stand, sometimes sit, and sometimes she would be lying down. It was like they were testing her patience.

"I'm not going to run you know, I'm not that stupid," she said into the thin air, doubting that anyone would hear her.

She started to drift off again, a little nervous about the nightmares, but otherwise unshaken. She had only been asleep for what seemed like two seconds, but in reality was the entire night, when the door opened. Someone stepped inside and she sat up in bed. It was the man who called himself Michael-the one who greeted her in this prison cell of a room.

"Time to go," he said. "Time to start your second chance."


	6. Shadow Walker

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, they really make my day. I hope everyone likes this update, I enjoyed writing it. As many have probably guessed (due to the title), yes, Imogen DOES meet Birkhoff for the first time in this chapter. I had to stop and many times while writing because I started laughing. Also, sorry about length, I'm trying really hard to make them longer, but it's a battle between that and updating fast! (Edit: This is set between "Kill Jill" and "Rough Trade")  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: I do not own Nikita.**

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><p>Imogen heard whispers as she walked through the dining hall.<p>

"Newbie"

"Blew up a government building"

"I heard it was a fire hall"

"No—a library"

"It was a police garage, idiots," she said loudly, flopping down at an empty table. "Some people…they just don't get it."

"People tend to skew things around here," a voice said.

Imogen looked up and saw a young man, maybe about her age, or a little younger.

"So it would seem," she said, a bored tone to her voice.

"I'm Thom. And you are?" he asked, not sensing her tone.

Imogen rolled her eyes and said, "Imogen."

"Nice to meet you," he replied. "So you blew up a building?"

"Yup," she answered, popping the 'p' sound.

"Why?" he asked.

"Don't like cops," she said, looking right at him.

Just then, a guard called out, "Get a move on recruits! Time is up!"

"Frigging military school," Imogen muttered under her breath.

_This is going to take patience, _she thought to herself as she got up and followed the rest of the recruits to wherever it was they were going. She walked down a set of steps after everyone else, and then looked up. It was a computer lab.

"This is going to be great," she muttered to herself, a small smirk on her face.

Imogen had two options here. She could play dumb and let everyone think that she knew absolutely nothing, or she could just use her skills freely. When a man with messy hair, day-old scruff on his chin, and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, in sharp contrast to the other "teachers" in this place, walked in, Imogen immediately made her decision.

_Bring it on_, she thought to herself.

"Ok kiddies, new exercise today. Find the shell code in 1 minute or less. Go," Birkhoff said, setting down his bags onto the desk at the front of the computer lab.

Imogen just leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, looking right at him. Birkhoff turned around and monitored what everyone was doing.

"Come ON! This isn't that hard," he said, frustration evident in his voice. "You, newbie. Why aren't you completing the exercise?"

"Don't want to," Imogen replied, smirking.

"Don't want to or don't know _how_?" Birkhoff said, walking up to her.

"Don't want to, obviously. I could do this in a split second," she answered, leaning even further back in her chair.

"Everyone OUT," he yelled. "Newbie, you stay here."

After everyone had left, he turned back to Imogen.

"Prove that you can do it. I don't care if you don't want to or not," he said, staring intently at her.

"Is that a challenge?" she asked, as she sat up properly in her seat.

"Of course," he replied.

"Wager?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"How about…if you win, I'll give you a package a Twizzlers. And if I win…" he answered, thinking hard.

"I won't give you a hard time in class," she finished. "You game?" She extended her hand towards him.

"You're on," he said shaking her hand.

Imogen looked away from Birkhoff and started typing on the computer in front of her. Birkhoff just stood there watching her, a smirk on his face. He was absolutely sure that she wouldn't be able to crack the system. She was a newbie; they were never able to do anything upon their arrival. Though he had to admit, this one had some fire in her. She was a troublemaker; that was a fact.

"Done," she said, taking her hands off of the keyboard.

She smirked at Birkhoff, "Now where's my prize?"

Birkhoff reluctantly gave her a package of Twizzlers from his bag. She reached out to grab them, and smiled at him.

"It's Imogen, by the way, not newbie," she said to him, satisfaction evident in her voice.

She turned away from Birkhoff and exited the room; headed to the training area.

"Wow," she whispered.

Once she was out of his sight, Birkhoff sat down onto a chair, still watching the place where she disappeared.

_That was…new_, he thought to himself.

* * *

><p>Imogen was punching a dummy, focused on hitting its head, when another one of the recruits came up to her.<p>

"I'm Alex," the girl said.

"Imogen," she replied.

"You mind sparring with me? I haven't got a partner," Alex asked.

Imogen looked at her for a moment and then answered, "Sure."

The two girls moved to a mat and started their sparring match. As Imogen was new, her hand to hand combat skills weren't as good as Alex's were. While they were sparring however, Alex gave Imogen a few tips and within the hour, Imogen was starting to get better. Imogen knew that she could probably best anyone when it came to computers, though Birkhoff might give her a run for her money, but hand to hand combat was definitely not her strong suit. The purpose Division would serve was to get her good at hand to hand combat, so she wouldn't be helpless if and when she had to use it against the cops.

One thing that Imogen did notice was that she had more stamina than Alex. She wasn't breathing hard at all at this point, but Alex was. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she had spent the majority of her life running from something. _That's a plus, _she thought to herself. _At least I can outrun someone, or fight longer, even if I'm not better than them._

"So how long have you been down here, Alex?" Imogen asked as they stopped sparring.

"A few weeks," Alex replied. "Although sometimes it feels like it's my very first day."

"Ah, I see," Imogen said, and then took a gulp of water. "It's actually my first proper day, so I can't sympathize…yet at least."

"It's alright," Alex said. "Oh look, there's Thom. I better go now!"

Alex waved goodbye to Imogen and walked towards Thom, and the two started talking at what seemed like a mile a minute.

_They are attracted to each other, _thought Imogen. _Any idiot could see that. But somehow…somehow I doubt that this place allows that sort of thing. That'll get them into trouble, I'm sure of it._

Imogen shook her head and headed towards the showers. She had to focus on her purpose for staying here. Nothing could distract her, not if she could help it. Imogen went through each and every event of the day, analyzing them as much as she possibly could. Just like her father taught her to do. As she thought about her father, she looked down to the necklace that hung around her neck. The massive amount of charms on it was astounding; even so, it felt like it was weightless. Most of them her father had bought for her, or she had gotten for herself. There was one that was a gift from her mother; given to her the last time that she had ever seen her mother. Sometimes Imogen wondered if her mother knew what would happen a couple hours later; that she would end up dead. Nevertheless, that last memory was etched in Imogen's head and she would never ever forget her mother's words.

The charm was a small silver heart and when her mother had given it her she only said a few words. Her last words to Imogen as well, which was another reason why she remembered them like it was yesterday.

_"Give it away when you're sure. I love you baby girl"_

At that time, Imogen had no idea what her mother meant by "when you're sure", but as she got older and thought about the words over and over again, she understood. Despite the years that she spent abroad, not once did she come close to giving that charm away. Imogen didn't think she ever could, not at the rate she was going and her situation now. But only time would tell; she couldn't see the future.

"Anything could happen," she whispered to herself as she dried her hair.

Imogen padded back to her room, trying to be as quiet as possible. She passed by the computer lab, looking inside as she went. Birkhoff was there, staring intently at a computer screen. Imogen shook her head with a slight smile and continued walking. Messing with him today was extremely fun; more fun than she had had in a long time. Once Imogen reached her room, she grabbed one of the Twizzlers that she had won off of Birkhoff, and flopped onto her bed. Tomorrow was another day, and boy, was she excited. She had to make her mark on this place; they would never forget her once she was done here.


	7. Little Smirk

**A/N: I hope that everyone likes this chapter! Not much else to say really…OH! I do have a blog, and I'm thinking about posting an entry going through the songs that I'm using as titles and whatnot for my titles. Any interest in that?**

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><p><em>Bang. Bang. Bang Bang. Bang. Bang Bang Bang.<em>

Imogen was down in the shooting range, practicing her aim. She knew that she could hit someone; but she needed to improve so that she would never ever miss. Shaking out her hair, she prepared for the next round of shots.

_Bang. Bang Bang. Bang. Bang Bang._

"Aim a little more to the left," a voice said.

Imogen whirled around, startled by the voice.

"Seems like I found your weakness," Birkhoff said calmly, leaning against the wall.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. I could have SHOT you, asshole," she snapped, taking off her safety glasses.

"Nah, you wouldn't have shot me…_Immy_," he replied, smirking.

"Don't CALL me that!" she said, getting a little angry.

Birkhoff just smiled at her, proud that he had found a way to push her buttons. Imogen just got even more frustrated and left the shooting range, leaving Birkhoff there alone.

* * *

><p>"…What we like to call grace under fire," said Michael as Imogen slipped into the class.<p>

He looked at her and shook his head just a little bit, barely noticeable, but kept on talking. Imogen watched him and made it look like she was listening, but she really wasn't paying too much attention.

"There's a bomb under this car. You have thirty seconds," he said. "Who wants to go first?"

Imogen saw a girl, Jaden, stand at the front of the group and stick her hand in the air.

"…Alex you're up," Michael said, looking straight past Jaden.

Alex looked like she was cursing in her head, she obviously didn't want to go, and though Imogen could not see Jaden's face, she seemed extremely annoyed.

_Seems like they're rivals. I wonder… _Imogen thought to herself.

She wasn't sure when it started, but suddenly Alex started screaming underneath the car. Thom, who was standing right next to Imogen, rushed forwards and grabbed Alex's legs, pulling her out from under the car.

_And they're going to get together…soon. _Imogen couldn't help but laugh a little in her head, but stopped when she saw Michael and Amanda talking. She didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to herself. Though Alex was distracting their attention enough; what with her panic attack and all.

Imogen left the room ahead of all the recruits. Thom and Alex were being watched by Amanda, and she wanted to get out of there as soon as she possibly could.

Looking back, she noticed Thom helping Alex get off the floor. _That's not going to end well,_ she thought to herself.

* * *

><p>Imogen was running on one of the treadmills while she watched Thom and Alex practice Kobudo. She could tell that Alex was distracted, she was attacking too hard. Plus she looked around when Michael walked through. Imogen looked out the corner of her eye; she was careful and made sure that no one would notice her watching.<p>

"If all you do is thrash at your opponent, you're going to get nailed," Thom said, holding the two staffs, and looking right at Alex. "You still haven't let go of what happened this morning, huh? Hey, where are you going?"

Imogen tuned them out at this point; she decided to get off the treadmill for now, it was about time that she took a break. As she grabbed her water bottle, Alex was confronted by a guard.

"Amanda would like to see you," the guard said.

"Yeah I got to go," Alex started, moving around the guard.

"Now," the guard pointed in the opposite direction, pushing Alex along.

_Next time don't freak out in front of her Alex, it won't end well. Good luck in there, _thought Imogen.

"How's it going?" a voice said.

Imogen looked around and saw Thom standing in front of her, staffs still in hand.

"Good, you?" she asked.

"Well, I just got abandoned by Alex, but otherwise fine," he replied.

Imogen laughed a little then responded, "Tough luck. I would help you out, but I have something that I need to do. Maybe some other time?"

"Sure," he said, turning away.

"Bye Thom," Imogen waved as she walked away.

When Imogen reached her room, she went straight to the Twizzlers that she had won off of Birkhoff. She didn't know why, but she had suddenly craved them. _Hmmm, _she thought to herself. _Maybe it's time to mess with him a little bit._ She smirked, grabbed a second Twizzler and walked out of her room. _This is going to be fun._

* * *

><p>A little while later, after searching the computer lab and other places in Division for Birkhoff, Imogen decided to walk past Operations, on the opposite side to the training room. As she walked up, she noticed that the door were open and she heard a voice; Birkhoff's.<p>

"No, but I like this channel," he said.

Imogen smiled to herself, and walked to the door. She stood outside it for a moment, and when Birkhoff looked up she smirked a little, and bit a piece of the Twizzler off.

"Keep your eyes on the models; you know how she likes to dress up," he said slowly, speaking into his headpiece and staring at Imogen.

Imogen just smiled at him, waved a little, and kept on walking. _Mission accomplished, _she thought to herself.

* * *

><p>The next day, Imogen was feeling pretty good so she didn't mind just sitting by and watching Alex go under the car again. This time Alex didn't start panicking while she was underneath it, which obviously meant that Amanda had gotten inside her head. Imogen shivered a little, dreading the thought of what would happen if Amanda got inside her head. She couldn't let that happen; everything would be ruined if she did.<p>

"What do you think happened when she was with Amanda?" another recruit asked her.

"I don't know Robbie. I doubt she'll tell us too. My guess is that it was something extremely personal and she only told Amanda because she had to," Imogen replied, now watching Jaden get under the vehicle.

"True enough I suppose. I wouldn't want to tell anyone something huge either. Not unless I trusted them whole heartedly," Robbie said, looking at the car.

"I'm the same way," Imogen answered, looking at Robbie.

"Is that why you never say anything much about your past?" he asked.

"Exactly. People seem to divulge a lot about their past in here. I'm under the impression that it will just come back to bite them in the end," she said. "Which is why the only people know about me is my first name and how I got in here. They only know how I got in here because rumours were going around and it annoyed me."

Robbie laughed a little, "Yeah, I remember. You called everyone idiots."

"Well, they should get their facts straight!" she said. "I have to go now though, there's something that I need to do."

"Alright, see you later," he said, nodding goodbye.

* * *

><p>Later that day, Imogen found herself heading down to the computer lab. It was nearing the end of the day, so most of the recruits were now either in the training area or in their rooms. No one really went into the computer lab unless it was for class. <em>Probably because Birkhoff bites their head off all the time if they don't get it... Not literally though, that'd just be weird, <em>she thought to herself.

When Imogen reached the lab, she looked in and saw that she wasn't the only one there. Alex was sitting at one of the computers, typing away. She looked around at Imogen and nodded. Imogen sat a few computers away from her. Sometimes someone sitting right next to you could be a distraction; and Imogen knew that Alex needed practice on her hacking skills. Of course, she thought that everyone did, even Birkhoff. But they didn't matter at the moment, Imogen just wanted to clear her head a little bit. Sure, she seemed perfectly put together on the outside; but it wasn't really like that all the time. She had just been taught to be like that; to betray nothing on her face…

_A younger Imogen sat on a chair, tears silently running down her face. Her father crouched on his knees in front of her, put a finger under her chin, and forced her to look at him._

"_Gracie, honey, I know you're sad, but you cannot keep crying. You don't want people to know when you're sad; they can use that against you ," he said._

_Imogen nodded, but was still crying._

"_It may not seem like it now, but when you get older; your emotions will not only be a very powerful tool for you… but they can also be a weakness. You need to learn how to control them, at least when it's critical," he said. "There's been many a time when my ability to conceal emotion has saved my life. I want the same for you."_

_Imogen blinked and asked, "But won't I become heartless or cold?"_

"_That is a danger, yes. But if you watch me closely and learn; that will never ever be the case," he replied. "I don't want you to lose your humanity. Someday…someday I want you to have a normal life; you'll need to be able to go back to that at some point. You can't just lose yourself entirely."_

"_So…I hide it? But somewhere that I can find it again?" she asked, tilting her head to one side._

"_Yes," her father answered._

"_Like a treasure chest?" she asked._

"_Exactly," he started. "Exactly like a treasure chest."_

_Her father reached into his pocket and pulled out another charm for her necklace. It was a tiny silver treasure chest, accented with black jewels._

"_This is for you," he said, attaching it to her necklace._

Imogen had been in the computer lab for quite some time; Alex had already left for the night. When she heard footsteps, she turned and saw Birkhoff.

"What're you doing here so late?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same thing, B" she replied.

Birkhoff frowned a little; Imogen could tell that the little nickname bugged him. _Good, _she thought. _That's what he gets for calling me Immy. I can fight back too._

"I came to pick up something," he said. "Now, what are you doing?"

"Practicing," she answered.

He smirked at her, and then said "Good, you need it."

"Oh really? And who won the bet the other day?" she said, an even bigger smirk on her face.

"You got lucky," he replied. "You aren't nearly as good as I am."

"Oh I wouldn't want to underestimate me," she said.

"I'll take my chances,_ Immy_" he said, walking forward.

Imogen leaned close to his face, and then whispered, "You'll lose; I hope you know that, B."

She flicked his nose, smirked, and then walked out of the room. Once she was out of his sight she started to break out in peals of laughter. _The look on his face, _she laughed to herself. _Priceless. _

Once she returned to her room, she thought about ways that she could stir things up in Division. It was just so boring; Imogen decided that things needed to change just a bit. She needed to have a little bit of fun, and what better way to do that than to cause some chaos. _Division has no idea what they took on when they trapped me in here, _she thought, yet another smirk on her face.

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><p><strong>AN: So I gave them nicknames this chapter…I was struggling to find one for Birkhoff, so I just left it as B for no, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any ideas for one. Don't forget to leave a review :)  
><strong>


	8. Raise A Little Hell Now?

**A/N: This chapter was supposed to be out Friday, but during the car ride when I was working on it, the file got corrupt somehow, and then it disappeared when I tried to fix it. Anyways, I rewrote it this weekend, and I hope you enjoy it! It's set between "Rough Trade" and "The Guardian". I split it into two parts, because I didn't want people to have to wait even longer. Read on, and don't forget to review!**

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><p>Imogen lay on her bed, thinking about everything that had happened since she arrived at Division. She was definitely making her presence known, but…Imogen didn't want to get herself in trouble. She realized that this was the sort of place that would not hesitate to kill her if she caused too much trouble.<p>

_Maybe I should settle for more subtle methods,_ she thought to herself. _That might be the best course of action._

She loved causing trouble, no one was denying that. Imogen seemed to enjoy annoying Birkhoff a little more than the others here; maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was more likely to get away with when he was involved instead of someone like Michael.

_Oh Michael_, she laughed to herself. _Someone has a stick up his ass. I think he might need someone to remove it…a general surgeon maybe._

Imogen shook her head and grabbed a tennis ball from her side table and began throwing it against the wall, lost in her thoughts. She wasn't used to being cooped up in the same space for very long; she had spent years and years on the run. Maybe that was why she liked causing trouble…it gave her an excuse to move on from wherever it was she was staying. Now she had no choice but to stay put…causing trouble was like a bad habit that she couldn't break.

_I just need to alter my methods…I think,_ she asked the air. _Yes, that's what I'll do._

She caught the tennis ball and put it back into the side table. Sliding under the covers, she stared up at the ceiling, thinking about how she could make this work. After about half an hour, Imogen finally drifted off to sleep.

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><p>Imogen was lost in her thoughts when Alex walked up to her the next day during training.<p>

"Do you mind being my sparring partner? I got here late and I really don't feel like sparring with Jaden," Alex said, as Imogen stopped punching the crap out of the dummy.

"Sure, I could use the live practice. The dummies can only do so much," she replied.

"Thanks, so much, you are a life saver!" said Alex, a smile breaking out across her face.

So the two girls started sparring with each other, talking about the events of last night as they did so. They had heard that Michael was really beating the shit out of one of the recruits' practice dummies. Every single one of the recruits wondered what had happened that got him so agitated.

"Even I would not get him that angry," said Imogen as they paused for a break. "And that is saying something."

"I suppose that we are never going to find out," said Alex, grabbing a small towel to wipe off the sweat. "I think that we should probably get cleaned up- Birkhoff's class is in an hour and we do not want to be late."

"You are right. I heard that he has a special task for us today," replied Imogen, following Alex out of the training room.

"Any idea on what it could be?" asked Alex.

"No," she answered. "But I don't think that it is for a mission—just practice. Nevertheless, Birkhoff gets really grumpy when we don't complete his tasks."

"Not that you have to worry about that, eh Imogen?" remarked Alex. "You are incredibly good at all the hacker stuff after all."

"I'm not _that_ good," Imogen lied. "Birkhoff is much better than I am."

Alex never replied to Imogen's comment as the two girls had to part ways for the showers. In absolutely no time at all, they were both done and they headed over to the computer lab. Imogen sat at the front of the room, lunging back in her chair and fully prepared to annoy Birkhoff. Alex didn't sit next to Imogen; she chose to sit with Thom instead.

When Birkhoff arrived in the lab, they immediately found out what their oh-so-important task was for the day.

"Aright kiddies, we have got something interesting for you to do today. Not that it's ever boring in here," said Birkhoff, setting his laptop bag down on the front desk. "I want all of you to create a security system, like the one on the screen here. Try not to make any mistakes."

After Birkhoff finished speaking and sat down, Imogen looked at the main screen, showing the details of their task. If you could even call them details; there really weren't any steps; just the components of the final product. She toyed with the idea of making this security system much better, but then Imogen realized that it would give away most of her abilities. She didn't want that; not yet at least.

So Imogen got to work on the task, making sure that she stalled from time to time so that she wasn't finished too quickly. It only took her half an hour, so she was done before everyone else anyways. While she was waiting for the other recruits to finish, she snuck a glance at Birkhoff, who was leaning back in his chair and drinking a can of Red Bull. She kept looking at him for a moment and realized that he was staring back at her. The shirt he was wearing was some sort of action hero t-shirt so she couldn't help it…

"Nerd," she whispered.

With that single word, Birkhoff's whole demeanour changed. He stopped drinking his red Bull and slowly put it down. He stood up quickly, an angry look on his face.

"Everyone should be done now," he said. "Go back to the training room. You are done here."

All of the recruits got up and were quickly making their way out of the room when Birkhoff spoke again.

"Not you," he pointed at Imogen. "I need to have a word with you."

Imogen was halfway out of her seat when he said that, so she slowly sat back down. Once everyone was out of the room, Birkhoff walked over and leaned against the desk next to where she was sitting.

"What do you want?" she asked, tilting her head.

"You called me Nerd," he replied, folding his arms. "Never…call me that again."

"I wasn't calling you Nerd," said Imogen.

"Oh _really_? I distinctly heard you say the word," he shot back.

"I was making a simple comment about your t-shirt," she replied.

"What about my shirt?" he asked.

"Nothing," she replied.

"Lie," he said.

"It was nothing!" she protested.

"Now, why don't I believe you?" he asked.

"I don't know," she answered.

"Just tell me," he said, eyes not wavering from her face.

"Fine," she started. "I just thought that it was…"

Imogen was cut off by the sound high heels against the floor. Amanda had entered the computer la, and both Imogen and Birkhoff turned to look at her.

"Imogen, please come with me," Amanda said.

"Guess I'm popular today," she mutter under her breath, once Amanda had started walking away from them.

Birkhoff couldn't help but snort in laughter, but he didn't acknowledge Imogen's soft 'goodbye B' with anything, not even a nod.

Imogen looked sadly at Birkhoff as she walked away from him and towards Amanda. The two women walked in silence towards Amanda's "lair", where Imogen knew that she would find out why she was being called on. When they arrived there, Percy was waiting patiently in one of the chairs.

"You must be wondering why we called you here," said Percy.

"Not really," Imogen lied. "I assume that you have your reasons."

"We do," Amanda said, motioning for Imogen to sit.

"You've been activated for your first mission," finished Percy.

Imogen's face betrayed no emotion as she asked, "What's the mission?"

"You are to get access to some important files—once inside, you are to copy all of the information you find and then set a small virus onto the network," answered Percy.

"So, computer stuff?" she asked. "Why me?"

'"We chose you because you are the most promising in this area," replied Amanda.

"What about Birkhoff? He is better than I am," said Imogen.

"We require a young woman for this assignment," said a voice behind Imogen.

She didn't have to turn around to know that Michael had walked into the room.

"Though Birkhoff will be glad to hear the praise, I'm sure. He can't get enough of it," continued Michael.

"So, when is this mission?" she asked.

"You will start preparing tomorrow; Birkhoff will be on hand to help you build the virus," answered Percy.

"Alright," she said. "Now what?"

* * *

><p>"So the virus that we will need for this is relatively simple. All it has to do is give us eyes inside the network," said Birkhoff, sitting down next to Imogen.<p>

"It's not one that destroys everything then?" she asked.

"No it's not," he replied. "This virus is just a simple information gatherer."

"Alright then, we should probably get started," she said.

For the next couple hours, Birkhoff and Imogen worked steadily on the creation of this virus. They didn't work in complete silence, but Birkhoff couldn't help but wonder why Imogen wasn't giving him a hard time at the moment. She always did in class, why would now be any different? As Imogen reached across him to steal one of his Twizzlers, finally something normal and not out of the ordinary, her hand brushed his arm. It sent a shock up his arm, and he nearly shuddered at the sudden contact. _No,_ he thought to himself._ You are not allowed to do that._

"Are you ok Birkhoff?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he replied. "We're finished here; you can go back to training now."

Once Imogen left, Birkhoff put his head in his hands and took a deep breath. He didn't want her to go on the mission anymore, and he had no idea why.


	9. Don't Know The Word

**A/N: I finished a major project today that counts as my final exam, so I decided to take a break before working on another project…and I wrote this! I hope that everyone enjoys it And please, remember to review! They make me extremely happy (Sorry if it's a little short, I really wanted to get an update out today)  
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* * *

><p>Imogen strapped on a pair of black stiletto heels and then looked in the mirror. Things were relatively simple for her mission that night. She was dressed in nightclub attire, a very short jean skirt and a sparkly, backless top. When Amanda had shown her what she was supposed to wear and how her makeup was to be done for the mission; she realized the reason why they needed a female to complete it. The target that she needed to get past was a man, and he would not be swayed by another man. SO Imogen was the woman who would have to approach him in the nightclub and somehow get back to where he was staying so that she could insert the flash drives.<p>

Speaking of said flash drives, Imogen started to make her way to the computer lab, where Birkhoff was supposed to have the drives all ready for her; including one being hidden in a bracelet and the other in a necklace.

When Imogen reached the computer lab, she didn't have to announce herself as the sound of her heels made Birkhoff look up.

When he heard the sound of high heels against a concrete floor, Birkhoff's head lifted to see Imogen standing there in front of him, looking…very prepared for the mission.

"You have the flash drives?" she asked hesitantly.

"I do," he answered, looking down at the desk.

He rummaged around for a moment, a bit unnerved, but found what he was looking for and then said, "Here you go," and handed the disguised flash drives to Imogen.

She put on the bracelet first, without fumbling over the clasp. But when she tried to put the necklace on, her fingers started to shake a little, and so she had to stop trying to clip it.

"Would you mind helping me please B…irkhoff?" she asked, holding the necklace out to him.

"No problem," he said, moving around the desk.

He took the necklace from her, and after gently moving her hair off of the back of her neck, he out the necklace on.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"Good luck tonight. Not that you need it," he said with a small smile.

"Bye Birkhoff," she said, and then exited the computer lab.

* * *

><p>"Target is located. He is sitting by the bar," said Imogen into her earpiece.<p>

"Good," said Michael. "Is he alone?"

"I think so," she replied.

"Approach the target and begin the mission," he said. "No more contact unless something goes wrong, alight?"

Imogen made her way through the crowd, trying to hear herself think and go over the steps of the mission. The music in the club was so loud that it felt like her eardrums were going to burst. Luckily, that meant no one would be able to hear her talk to Michael. When she reached the bar, she passed behind the target, making sure to slightly brush herself against him.

"Can I get a Mojito please?" she called to the bartender as she slipped into the seat next to the target.

She wasn't going to drink that much; but she knew that if she didn't drink at all it would look suspicious. The target looked at her for a brief moment.

"What's a guy like you doing alone here?" she asked him, noticing the look.

"Just chilling really," he answered. "What's your name?"

"Katy," she replied easily. "Yours?"

"Matthew," he said, taking a drink of his beer.

"Oh that's a lovely name," she said, reaching her hand out to touch his arm.

Matthew tensed up for a moment, but then relaxed and smiled.

"I think it's a bit odd that a beautiful woman like you is here alone," he said. "Don't you have a boyfriend?"

"Nope," she answered. "We broke up a couple hours ago."

"So you come to a nightclub?" he asked.

"I'm looking to get smashed and forget about his sorry ass," she replied, sipping her drink.

"I think that I can help you with that," he replied, leaning closer to her. "More drinks bartender!"

When Matthew leaned closer to her, Imogen felt his hand on her thigh and she couldn't help but feel a little sick. It felt wrong, doing this. She was normally amazing at flirting and getting what she wanted, but this time it just didn't seem right.

_Maybe If I get him really wasted…_she thought to herself. _He might pass out before anything else can happen at his place…_

So over the next few hours Imogen focused on getting him drunk and making him feel like she was getting drunk as well. At first it was difficult, and she had to keep spilling her drinks little by little each time that he looked away from her. As he got really wasted however, it was much easier to do this because he wasn't really focused on what was going on.

Matthew, who in contrast to Imogen was completely wasted, slid his hand up Imogen's thigh and leaned extremely close to her.

"Let's go back to my place," he slurred, trying to sound seductive.

Imogen just smiled and took his hand, allowing him to lead her out of the nightclub. She was so glad that he wasn't sober and therefore he could not tell that she was extremely uneasy about all of this. If she was wrong and he didn't pass out, she would have to do things that she did not want to. But…she had to prepare herself for it because she knew that everyone back at Division was expecting that to happen.

* * *

><p>The door was thrown open, and Matthew and Imogen just fell through it. The two of them were laughing at the top of their lungs—they were clearly wasted. He just could not keep his hands off of her, they were roaming on her legs, her back, everywhere.<p>

In Imogen's head, she was just praying that he would pass out soon.

As the two of them stumbled their way to the bedroom, Imogen unbuttoned Matthew's shirt. She had to keep the act up, she knew that. His lips were absolutely glued to her neck; she would have a hickey or something in the morning, knowing her luck.

* * *

><p>Imogen grabbed the flash drives out of the computer—the task was done. She slipped out the apartment, taking care in ensuring that she did not wake Matthew. When she reached the street, a black car was there waiting for her, with Michael inside.<p>

"No hiccups I assume?" he asked, pulling out onto the road.

"…Nope, everything went according to plan," she lied.

"Good. We're just going to head straight back now. You can hand the flash drives to Birkhoff, and then get some rest. You did well," he said.

The rest of the ride back to Division was completely silent; neither Michael nor Imogen spoke a word. Her head was leaning against the car window, with her eyes closed, though she was not sleeping.

When the two arrived back at Division, Michael led Imogen to Operations, where Birkhoff and Percy were waiting.

"I trust everything went well?" Percy asked.

"Of course," replied Michael. "She did really well."

Imogen silently handed over the flash drives to Birkhoff, unable to look him straight in the eye. Instead, she looked at Percy and then asked, "Is it alright for me to go now? I'm exhausted, and I would like to get some sleep before training tomorrow."

"Go," he said.

Imogen quickly turned away and exited Operations, heading not to her room but to the showers.

* * *

><p>Later that night, Imogen lay in bed, unable to close her eyes and go to sleep. She was just reviewing her mission that day. It just didn't go the way she wanted. Matthew never passed out-she had to go through with the original plan given to her by Division.<p>

He eventually fell asleep afterwards, and that was when she made her move. She copied the current files onto the first flash drive and then loaded the virus onto his computer with the other. The whole time she was shaking, so nervous that he would wake up. She had never been that unnerved before in her life—not when she blew up the garage, never. She didn't know the word for what she was feeling right now...and what she had been feeling the entire night. She just...felt wrong, that's all she could determine

The clothes that she had worn on the mission, that Amanda had previously told her she was allowed to keep, were stuffed into the back of the bottom drawer of her dresser. She just couldn't lay her eyes on them again, not yet.

After a couple more hours, Imogen finally drifted off to sleep. The last thing that she saw in her mind before she fell asleep was the look on Birkhoff's face when she returned from her mission. Despite the fact that she didn't meet his eyes, not directly anyways, she still saw his face. He seemed a little sad; though she had no idea why…


	10. Broken

**A/N: New update! It was supposed to be up on Sunday, but I hit writer's block… Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys it, and as a suggestion…If you want to really get into this chapter, I advise listening to Broken by Lifehouse while reading. Again, please review!**

* * *

><p>"We're supposed to learn something with Bluetooth devices today," said Robbie.<p>

Imogen barely looked up from her cereal when she said, "I'm not going."

"They won't like that you know, you cannot just skip your classes," replied Robbie.

"I don't care," she muttered. "I'm not going to go."

"Why not? It's not like you Imogen, you always want to go," he said reaching his hand out to touch hers.

She jerked her hand away and stood up.

"I just don't want to go, alright?" she said, and then quickly left the dining hall.

Imogen walked silently down the halls towards her room, arms folded as she went. She didn't get much sleep last night; just the thought of the clothes she had worn on the mission kept her up. She had to get them out of her room, but she knew that she couldn't just give them back to Amanda. That would raise too many questions…so what could she do with them?

"Are you okay?" a voice asked her as she leaned against the wall.

"Fine," she replied, not even looking up.

"I don't believe that," the voice said. "My class is in a few minutes and you are walking in the opposite direction. You love causing trouble in my classes; you are not fine if you're walking away from that."

Imogen looked defiantly into Birkhoff's eyes.

"I just don't feel like going today!" she said.

"I kind of figured that," he replied. "But the thing is, as much as you may want to not come and just lie in bed; it's an important lesson today."

"Already know how to do it," she said.

"Is that so?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep," she said, popping the 'p' sound.

"Then you don't have to pay attention, but you still have to come," he said.

"What's the point?" she asked.

"Your oh-so-witty attitude will be missed if you don't show up," he answered.

"Who would miss my wit?" she asked.

"It's time to go, and you are going to walk with me so I can make sure that you turn up," Birkhoff said.

Imogen narrowed her eyes once he turned away; she had a feeling that he was avoiding answering. Once they arrived in the class, Imogen sat down near Thom and Jaden; the only seat left free.

"Bluetooth devices! Use 128-bit-link keys to encrypt communication. Crack the _key_ and holy Watergate, Batman!" said Birkhoff, holding up a little gadget.

Imogen couldn't but snort in laughter. Only Birkhoff would bring a superhero into a class about technology. Birkhoff looked sharply at her, but then his lips twitched into a slight smile.

"Any cell phone within range becomes an instant bug," he finished.

Imogen looked down at her allotted equipment and began to work when she heard Thom and Jaden talking.

"Call me," said Jaden, waving a phone suggestively.

"I don't have your number," Thom replied.

"I think you do," said Jaden smugly.

Imogen couldn't help but roll her eyes. They were being so obvious and they would get in trouble with Division if they kept at it.

"Wow, snappy banter. You should write for reality TV," said Birkhoff, leaning towards Thom and Jaden. "Has it really been that long since you've had sex?"

Imogen flinched a little at the last comment, and didn't see Birkhoff's eyes flicker over to her for a brief second. Birkhoff started to walk away when Jaden made another comment about how at some of them have at least had sex, but Imogen just tuned her out. She didn't realize how much her mission was affecting her until those little comments.

Imogen took a deep breath and continued on with her work; if she could just get through the rest of this class, she would be fine. She just needed a little bit of time to recuperate on her own. Imogen knew full well that she couldn't go to anyone in Division about this; not only would they not understand…but it would get her into deep trouble. They would think that she couldn't handle it and then she would be canceled.

* * *

><p>A little while later Imogen was walking down the hall around Percy's office when she heard voices coming from inside.<p>

_That's strange,_ she thought. _Percy isn't here…_

Curiosity getting the better of her, Imogen walked up to the door and pressed her ear against it; trying to hear what the voices were saying.

"Ok cool, but what are we really doing here?" asked the first voice.

"Birkhoff," she muttered.

"Well let's put it this way Birkhoff. You can either help me, or I can tell Percy what you've been doing after hours in the video conference room," said a voice that Imogen recognized as Michael's. "…with the girls of Amsterdam?"

Imogen flinched away from the door and then continued walking down the hallway. Whatever they were talking about in there obviously wasn't that important. She shook her head and went down to the training room, not noticing Thom standing in the shadows as she went.

When she reached the training room, Imogen began to take out her frustrations on one of the dummies.

"Well I was going to ask if you'd spar with me…but judging from the way that you are beating on that, it's not such a good idea is it?" said Robbie, walking towards her.

"No, it's not," she replied, giving the dummy a good hit in the head.

"If that was a person, they'd probably have a concussion by now," Robbie remarked. "What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing," she answered. "I'm fine."

"You're obviously not," he said, grabbing one of her arms. "Seriously, what's wrong?"

"Just leave it Robbie," she said darkly, jerking her arm away.

At that point, Robbie just gave up trying to figure out what was wrong and walked away. Imogen decided to take a break from beating on the dummy. It wouldn't do anyone any good if she burned herself out. She moved to run on one of the treadmills after taking a drink from her water bottle. Just then, someone from Operations stepped out and started to talk to Michael.

"Percy?" asked Michael.

"Nikita," the man from operations said.

With that, each and every single recruit stopped and looked at what was going on. As Michael followed the guy into Operations, leaving Birkhoff behind, people slowly went back to training.

Even though Imogen was now running on the treadmill, she noticed that Alex walked up to Birkhoff-and she couldn't help but eavesdrop.

"Thanks again for helping me with that phone hack," said Alex.

"What? Whatever," Birkhoff said, sounding uninterested.

"The workaround you figured out was _genius_," Alex continued.

Something about Alex's tone of voice and how she moved slightly towards Birkhoff nearly made Imogen flinch. But Imogen just shook it off and kept running, pretending that she wasn't listening.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm very brilliant. Now move," he said impatiently, moving her out of the way.

Imogen started to run a little bit faster, ramping up the speed on the treadmill. She had finally decided; she was going to work really hard and just keep herself busy.

_Covering up the cracks_, she thought. _That's what I'm going to do._

* * *

><p>"Earlier today, we had a security breach," said Birkhoff, walking down the stairs to the training area while holding a stack of papers.<p>

Imogen was standing in the back row, behind Thom. She didn't want to be noticed; she just wanted to get out of there and go somewhere else.

"Someone entered Percy's office without permission…" Birkhoff continued. "We're going to find that person."

"Psst," a voice whispered to Imogen.

"What do you want Robbie?" she whispered back.

"You ok now?" he asked.

"I'm fine, now be quiet!" she hissed.

"You step forward now, take responsibility, and I will personally put in a word for you," Birkhoff said, pausing for a moment, allowing time for someone to speak up. "Ok…"

Birkhoff proceeded to walk in front of the first row of recruits, looking at them then down to his papers. Imogen could see that if the recruit checked out, that where they were was logged, Birkhoff just moved on silently, not saying a word. When he got to Jaden however, he moved past her while looking down at his sheets, then moved back to stand directly in front of her.

"Where were you at 15:00?" he asked suspiciously.

"In my room," Jaden responded.

"Funny, there's no log of that…" he said, and paused for a moment. "In fact, you were completely off the grid at that point."

"Not my fault," she said, sounding on edge.

"Anyone here that can vouch for her?" he said, raising his voice a little.

There was a moment of silence, during which Imogen noticed Thom turning his head and looking somewhere that was not directly in front of him. But before she could see where he was looking, Birkhoff started talking again.

"I didn't think so," he said, sounding completely satisfied.

"Oh, this is bull. I didn't do anything! You're trying to set me up; you think I don't know that?" Jaden said, voice growing louder towards the end.

She was advancing on Birkhoff before she had even finished speaking, and a few of the male recruits had to step forward to hold her back.

"HEY! What the hell is going on here?" Michael yelled, coming from Operations.

Imogen's lips twitched for a moment. _Birkhoff's in trouble! _She thought to herself. Imogen couldn't help but snicker, and was dangerously close to laughing out loud when she heard Michael yelling again.

"Everybody get out!" he yelled. "Go!"

Before Imogen made her way out the area and followed the other recruits, she heard Michael say something curious to Birkhoff.

"Look this has nothing to do with the recruits," he said. "I was in Percy's office. If there's any blowback it'll be on me and me alone. You got that?"

* * *

><p>Imogen sat in one of the spinning chairs in the computer lab, just spinning around and around and around. She was silent, no humming or anything, and her eyes were closed. The computer was on the home screen…she had only started it up before she had to stop. She just couldn't go any further…or doing anything really, until she dealt with what had happened on the mission.<p>

While spinning around, Imogen heard footsteps; someone came into the computer lab.

"What are you doing?" they asked. It was Birkhoff…

"Spinning around," she replied, not even opening her eyes.

"Why though? Aren't you dizzy?"

"No I'm not…I'm fine."

"Somehow I doubt that," he said, and he held out a hand to stop the chair from spinning.

It came to an abrupt stop, making her face him directly, even though she refused to open her eyes.

"Stop asking me these things ok? I don't want to talk about it," she said, trying to get out of the chair and leave. "I'm dealing with it on my own."

"You don't seem to be doing a very good job at it then. If I can notice, I bet you that Amanda can as well," he replied.

"I said stop," she said, pushing him back a bit so that she could stand.

"You need to talk to someone," he said, moving to grab her arm.

Imogen turned around and swiftly slapped him in the face.

"How can I talk to someone about this, when no one even cares about me? If I tell anyone, I'll get cancelled. Try thinking about that next time!" she said, small tears forming in her eyes.

Imogen turned and quickly made her way out of the computer lab, not even waiting for Birkhoff's response.

"But I care…" he whispered. "Maybe no one else does…but I do."


	11. Not Afraid

**A/N: Hope you enjoy this chapter! Please, don't forget to review!**

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><p><em>The scent of something metallic filled the air as a young woman ran down cobblestone streets. Her breathing was labored, but somehow she knew in her gut that she could not slow down. The woman saw an alcove; a place to hide. She quickly slipped off of the street and hide in the shadows, trying to quiet her breathing.<em>

"_Come out, come out, wherever you are," a voice said with an evil tone._

_The woman could just sense the smirk that was most definitely on the man's face._

"_Come out little birdie, come out and play with the big cat," the voice said, sounding louder and louder._

_Just then a hand reached out and grabbed the young woman, covering her mouth and preventing a scream._

"_There you are," the man whispered in her ear. "Now what to do with you…You've cause too much trouble…"_

_The woman held her breath, and used her free hand to claw at the wall, looking for a loose brick to pull out._

"_Afraid, little birdie?" the man asked._

_He lifted his hand just a little without realizing and the woman took her chance._

"_In. Your. Dreams." She replied, bringing her hand up and hitting him in the head with a brick. "I am not afraid you and I never will be."_

_The woman dropped the brick and started running for safety. When she turned the corner of the street tough, she was staring at yet another man, who was pointing a handgun straight at her face._

"_Not so fast," the man said darkly._

* * *

><p>Imogen sat bolt upright in her bed; heart pounding at what felt like a mile a minute. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she got out of her bed and after getting dressed, made her way out the room for the day. She felt confident today, like she could somehow do anything that she wanted to do, or set her mind to. The thing was she had no idea what would have brought this on, especially after last night, and her argument with Birkhoff.<p>

Shaking her head, Imogen sat down at the table with her breakfast and began to eat in silence. That is she was in silence up until Thom and Alex sat down at the same table.

"So Imogen," said Alex. "When's your evaluation?"

"I don't know," she replied. "I just woke up so I haven't found out yet."

"They told me right away," Alex said.

"That's nice," Imogen said. "But like I said, I only just woke up."

Taking an apple, Imogen got up from the table and made her way out of the dining area, but not before saying "See you later" to Thom and Alex. Imogen walked towards the computer lab and immediately sat down at her regular computer. Once she turned it on, there seemed to be an odd message on the screen, directed at her.

_Immy,_

_Computer lab around lunchtime._

_-B_

Imogen quickly closed the message as she heard footsteps coming towards the lab.

"Amanda would like to see you," a guard said to her.

She turned off the computer, and walked out of the room, passing the other recruits and Birkhoff on the way. There was a questioning look in Birkhoff's eyes; he wanted to know if she had seen the message. With a curt nod of her head, she let him know that she had indeed seen the message. She then continued on her way to see Amanda.

On her way there, Imogen thought of reasons why Amanda would want to see her. She came to the conclusion that it was going to simply be to tell her the time of her evaluation. Finally arriving at Amanda's office, she pushed open the door and stepped inside.

"Welcome Imogen," said Amanda, sitting on a chair.

"You called for me?" she asked.

"I did," Amanda replied. "Please sit down."

Imogen moved to sit across from Amanda on the couch, and once she did, Amanda poured two cups of tea.

"Drink," she said.

Not wanting to get in trouble, Imogen picked up her cup and drank the tea, even though she detested the taste. Give her something sweet any day, but never tea.

"You must be wondering why I called you in today," Amanda said, setting down her cup of tea.

"I did think about it on the way here, yes," Imogen answered.

"As you know, some of the recruits are going through an evaluation today," Amanda continued. "They are going to interrogate a prisoner that we just brought in."

"I see," Imogen said, trying to seem polite.

"You have not received word about your evaluation yet, have you?" Amanda asked.

"No I have not," she responded.

"I just wanted to inform you that you will be interrogating a Chinese man today, about halfway through your lunchtime," Amanda said.

Imogen knew enough to just nod and agree in response, and not reveal that she knew that Alex and a couple other recruits were interrogating a different prisoner. Why was she, Imogen, being treated differently? She was also smart enough not to reveal that she was supposed to go somewhere else during lunch.

"You may go now," Amanda said, interrupting Imogen's thoughts.

"Thank you," she replied, and exited the room.

_I'll just have to go there and tell Birkhoff that I can't talk and need to go to my evaluation. That should be ok…right? _She thought to herself.

* * *

><p>Imogen walked into the computer lab near the beginning of lunch. A few minutes earlier she had seen Alex going off for her evaluation; so Imogen knew that she only had limited time to talk to Birkhoff before she herself had to go.<p>

"Hello Birkhoff," she said, a little stiffly.

"Hey," he replied, getting up from his desk and walking towards her.

"What did you want me here for?" she asked.

"I just wanted to say sorry," he answered. "For last night…I'm sorry that I kept pestering you. I'm just worried; that's all."

"Don't worry about me," she said, softening just a tad. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Also, I just wanted you to know that…if you ever weren't okay and you needed someone to talk to…" he said. "You can talk to me."

"Alright," she said.

"Friends?" he asked.

"Friends," she whispered.

A minute or so passed with the two of them just standing there, looking at each other but not saying a word. Birkhoff's arm twitched, like he wanted to reach out to her and grab her hand or something. Imogen shook her head, getting that thought out or her mind, blinked, and then looked up at the clock.

"I have to go now," she said. "I've got my evaluation in ten minutes."

"See you later?" he asked.

"Goodbye B," she said, and then Imogen turned and left the room, leaving Birkhoff there on his own.

* * *

><p>"Alright Imogen," said Amanda. "This man is a part of a drug smuggling ring. Problem is, he is not one of the 'big fish', so to speak."<p>

"You want me to get the names of the leaders?" she asked.

"Exactly," Amanda replied. As she handed Imogen a tablet computer, she continued talking. "This is all of the information that we have. Use it well in there."

"Alright," Imogen said, nodding.

"Try not to fail; remember that this is an evaluation," said Amanda. "Before you go in I have one more thing for you. This is the remote that will trigger the electrocution device we have attached to this man."

"Negative motivation," Imogen said, staring down at the remote in her hand.

"Exactly," Amanda said, before turning and walking back down the hall.

Imogen took a deep breath, clutched the tablet to her chest and clenched the remote in her fist. She opened the door and stepped inside. She was facing a Chinese man, like Amanda said, who looked to be in his mid thirties. He had wires coming from various places on his body. There was one on each side of his head, and about four on his chest.

"You are interrogating me?" he said incredulously.

"Got a problem with that?" she asked harshly.

"You seem a bit young," the man replied.

"I'm twenty three, asshole. I think that I am perfectly capable of this," she said, walking around the room.

"I disagree," he said. "You don't have much power here, I can tell."

"I have enough," she said.

"Really?" he asked. "Prove it."

"You're an only child and your mother and father died years ago, otherwise you wouldn't be involved with this type of thing. You are part of a drug smuggling ring called the Black Dragon. You're only a middle member. They tell you some information, but not enough in your opinion. You think that they should trust you more and let you up higher in their ranks." She said. "What I do know is that you know the names of all the high-ranking members. I want names and locations. You have nothing else to live for; no wife, no girlfriend, no one. You'll be put in jail for the rest of your miserable life if you don't give up this information. If you do, I will personally make sure that you are cut a deal. You could lessen the punishment on yourself, wouldn't you like that?"

The man in the chair just stared straight ahead, directly at the door, and did not respond to Imogen's interrogation. Imogen put down the tablet onto the other chair the room, and moved closer to the prisoner.

"This remote in my hand, should I press the button, will trigger an electrical shock straight to your chest and your brain. It won't kill you, not right away, but it will hurt like hell. Do you want that?" she said, an angry tone in her voice.

"Try me," the man said.

Imogen could tell that he was goading her, and as much as she didn't want to press the button, she knew that she would have to. She thought about it in her head, and came to the conclusion that since it wouldn't kill him….she would be fine. Her finger hovered over the button for a moment, not quite pressing down on it.

"You have one last chance. You tell me what I want to know, and I won't press the button," she said, looking at the man straight in the eyes.

The man just stared straight back at her; his confidence wasn't shaken a bit. He didn't think that she would press the button, Imogen realized. She slid her finger over the button one more time, and then pressed down hard on it. The man in the chair convulsed a little bit, but did not scream at all.

Imogen, steeling herself, increased the volts of the device and pressed the button again. She knew how much it was hurting the man, she had been electrocuted in the past, but she had to do it. She knew that. They would punish her if she didn't and Imogen could not let that happen. She wasn't afraid of them anymore, but she still needed to get through this if she was going to take her father's killers down.

When Imogen looked down at the remote again, she saw how high the next level would be. It would start to cause some serious damage and she didn't know if she could do that to him. She stood there, looking at him for a moment, hesitating.

"You ready to give up the information?" she asked.

The man glared at her, and then spit in her face. Imogen raised her hand and wrapped it around the guy's throat.

"Don't you _ever _do that again," she said, then released his throat.

She turned around and walked away from the man. She knew that she would be expected to continue the electrocution, but after a few minutes, Imogen realized that she couldn't do it. She looked up at the camera in the corner of the room briefly, and then heard Amanda's voice in her ear.

"You may go now Imogen, I'll take it from here," she said.

Imogen turned and looked at the man one last time. He glared back at her, and then she left the room

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><p>Imogen was in the training room with the other recruits when Michael came down the stairs.<p>

"Everybody listen up!" he said. "You'll spend today's tactics lesson handling sniper rifles. But…here's the rub. You'll be at one of our offsite training grounds. The bus leaves in thirty minutes so gear up…and bring you're A game."

As soon as Michael left, Imogen rushed out and headed towards the showers. She knew how to handle sniper rifles, though she had never had any practice with them outside of Division. Then again, the other recruits would not have had much, if any, practice either.

Thirty minutes later, and Imogen was sitting on the bus. The windows were all black out so it was pointless to have grabbed a window seat, but she liked it anyways. She just imagined what be outside the windows. Rolling hills maybe, and trees. She hadn't seen the outside world since her mission, and that wasn't much either. She knew that they weren't in the city; she couldn't hear the sounds.

Just then Imogen was thrown forward into the seat in front of her and she heard a loud noise and a crash.

"Everybody get down!" one of the guards yelled.

Imogen ducked under the seat and curled up on the floor, seconds before a large number of bullets began flying through the air and pierced the windows and killing the guards. Masked people stormed the bus and one of them yelled out, "Everybody off now!"

Imogen got up and walked into the aisle, punching one of them in the face. Sadly, she didn't notice that there was one behind her. That one hit her over the head, and placed a weird smelling cloth over her mouth. Imogen suddenly felt dizzy and then the whole world went black.

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><p><strong>muahahaha! Cliffhanger!<strong> **Again, please review, it makes my day!**


	12. Fences

**A/N: yet another chapter! I have more time on my hands right now, even though I do have an exam on Thursday. Anyways, this chapter takes place at the very end of Resistance for the first little bit of it, but then it continues on after Resistance ends (mainly because they can't be watching two recruits at once…you'll see why!) Enjoy the chapter, and don't forget to review!**

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><p>Imogen's eyelids fluttered open, and she looked around her. Her hands and feet were tied with coils of rope. She could barely see her surroundings, but she could tell that she was in a tiny, enclosed space. Her breathing began to be labored; she hated small spaces. After nearly being buried alive one night a long time ago, she was claustrophobic. She could still feel the dirt covering her face, invading her mouth and nose…and she could still feel the lack of oxygen in the limited amount of air. Imogen closed her eyes for a brief moment and took a shallow, shaking breath to try and calm herself down.<p>

She reviewed the events of what had happened, what she remembered anyways. As she opened her eyes she remembered being on a bus to one of Division's offsite training grounds. They were supposed to be using sniper rifles in their tactics lesson…and they needed a large expanse of land in which to do that…

_The bus must have been attacked_, she thought. _This means…that I am not with Division right now. I'm with one of their enemies._

She spent the next little while, a time that felt like hours to her, trying to keep herself from hyperventilating. She just had to keep reminding herself that she was not being buried this time, and that she would make it out of this somehow.

Just then a stream of light filled the room, and Imogen was yanked to her feet. She stumbled along a hallway as the figure pulled her along. After awhile they stopped, entered a larger room, and Imogen was shoved into a chair, where her bonds were retied to attach her to the chair. Imogen also noticed that there seemed to be some sort of wire hooked up to a box near her chair.

_An electrocution device_, she realized. _It must be attached to me somehow. _

Imogen shut her eyes again, but then a hand connected with her face, forcing her to open them again. When she did, Imogen saw a Chinese man in front of her. Not the same one from her interrogation obviously…but she was drawing a connection. They wanted information, though how they knew that she was the one interrogating their man was beyond her.

"Where is he?" he said at her, while glaring.

"I…don't know," she replied stonily. As much as she hated being in Division, she wasn't going to give up any information. She had friends there…they would get in trouble if she said anything. This man would no doubt go after every single person in there.

"Liar," the man yelled, smacking her across the face. "I know your people took him."

"I don't know what you are talking about," she said.

The man moved towards the box and turned the dial, sending waves of electricity through Imogen's body. Imogen's body arched, but she gritted her teeth and did not let out a single scream of pain.

"Let's try that again," he man said, advancing on her. "Tell me who you work for, and where they took this man."

The guy thrust a photograph of the prisoner that Imogen had interrogated.

"Tough luck, I don't know who he is, never seen him before in my life," she said, still gritting her teeth.

His hand connected with Imogen's face yet again, but she still did not say anything.

"Tell me bitch," he said in her ear. "Tell me where he is or I will raise the volts."

"Be. My. Guest." She said.

The man, obeying her, moved towards the dial, cranked it up a little bit, and sent another wave of electricity through her body. Once again, Imogen made no sounds, though her eyes started to water from the pain. She knew that she could take more pain that most people…one of the few blessings, if you could even consider it one, that she had received from her ruined childhood.

"Ready to talk yet?" he asked her.

"Nope," she said, with a smirk on her face once the pain subsided.

For the third time, pain wracked Imogen's body as the man set off the electrocution device to an even higher level. At this point, despite the fact that Imogen was still managing not to scream, she began to lose track of time. She could have been there for hours; she had absolutely no idea.

"Just say please," the man said.

"In your dreams buddy. I'm not telling you anything," she responded.

This time the man really cranked up the volts of the electrocution device. Imogen's silence during the shocks was broken when the pain became too much and she began to scream. The pain lasted for what felt like hours, but was really only a couple minutes. When the man turned off the device, Imogen's head lolled to the side and she was consumer by darkness once more.

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><p>Birkhoff sat in Operations with Amanda and Percy; Michael having gone out to look for Alex. They were watching another recruit go through the exercise. Watching Imogen go through rounds of electro-shock was making him cringe inside, but he couldn't show that emotion…not while Percy and Amanda were in Operations with him. When she began to scream during the fourth round however, he could barely contain it and nearly yelled before he stopped himself.<p>

"How long's it been?" he asked.

"About an hour or so," Amanda replied.

'I'm surprised she hasn't given anything up yet," Percy said, looking at the screen.

"She's shown a lot of strength. Aside from the fact that she was unwilling to really subject our agent to torture," Amanda said, watching the screen as Imogen passed out.

"Pull her out now," Percy said. 'If she's promising, we don't want her to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Michael's on his way back with Alex, we need to reel things in before he sees anything. We don't want him to go off on one do we?"

_Michael's not the one you have to worry about here_, Birkhoff thought to himself.

Amanda nodded, gave the orders to bring Imogen back to Division, and the three of them left Operations. Birkhoff rushed off to his office and sat down on the couch, putting his head in his hands. He tried to calm his breathing, because as soon as he was out of the sight of Amanda and Percy he couldn't keep calm any longer. He had watched many recruits go through that exact same thing….but this time was different. He actually cared about Imogen, and he hated seeing her scream like that.

Knowing that he would be unable to sleep tonight and that it was unlikely that he would get any sleep until he saw that Imogen was fine, Birkhoff grabbed a couple Redbulls and began to drink them. He then picked up a controller and played video games well into the night.

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><p>Hours later, Imogen woke up with an incredibly sore body and a severe headache. She looked around and realized that she was back in her room in Division. It must have been an exercise…the whole thing.<p>

"Little bastards," she muttered to herself as she flung the covers off.

Imogen left her room as she just couldn't go back to sleep. She was stumbling along the dark, deserted halls of Division, as the electro-shock was still having an effect on her body. When she noticed that her check was throbbing, she raised a hand to it and decided that she must have a gigantic bruise or something. The man had slapped her quite hard, she had to admit that.

After a little while of stumbling around Division, Imogen found herself at a place she had never been. She walked down a tiny little set of stairs to see a couple computers, a television and a couch…that Birkhoff was sitting on as he was focused on the video game he was playing.

"Birkhoff?" she whispered.

Birkhoff suddenly dropped the controller and turned around on the couch.

"Imogen?" he said, not wanting to anger her with the nickname.

"It hurts," she said.

Birkhoff got off of the couch and moved towards Imogen, bringing her close to his chest.

"I know it does. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything," he muttered to her.

Imogen didn't say a word, just buried her face in his chest.

"Come sit down," he said, taking her hand and leading her to the couch he had been sitting on.

A few minutes passed and neither of them said anything. Imogen just sat on the other side of the couch and curled herself up into a little ball.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

Imogen hesitated a moment, but then decided to trust him.

"It wasn't the electro-shock that bothered me," she said. "It was being in an enclosed space for a long time before it. I'm…scared of small spaces. I have been ever since I was almost buried alive a long time ago."

Birkhoff was rendered speechless for a moment, and then just hugged Imogen tightly for a minute.

"It's okay now," he said.

After half an hour, Imogen moved away from Birkhoff and said, "I have to go now. See you later, Birkhoff."

"Bye Immy," he said as she left the room.

Imogen pulled her sweater closer to her body as she made her way back to her room. She wasn't stumbling down the halls anymore and she felt a whole lot calmer after her little visit with Birkhoff. She had no idea why she didn't yell at him for allowing them to put her through that, but she was extremely grateful to have gotten the fact that she was claustrophobic off of her chest. She had never told anyone about that night, willingly at least. Her father had realized it shortly after the incident, otherwise she would never have told him. It was hard to hide it from him…especially because it had happened on the last night that she had ever seen her mother, and the fact that she had been eight years old at the time.

That night had changed so many things for her. She had not only become afraid of small spaces, but she had also lost her mother. Her father had managed to dig her up in time, but he wasn't able to reach her mother, as she later found out. Not that it would have mattered, because her father told her that her mother had most likely already been dead when she was buried in the shallow grave.

It had taken years for Imogen to truly understand why they had gone after her and her mother that night instead of her father, the one that they were really after. They had wanted to hurt her father in the worst way that they possibly could…by taking away what he loved most in the world. They almost broke him that night, and had it not been for his determination to find them alive, they would have succeeded. Imogen knew that her father had no idea if they had indeed been killed or not, but he had one thing; the location of their graves. He needed confirmation…he wouldn't rest until he knew for sure what had happened to them.

Once Imogen opened the door to her room she quickly climbed into bed again. She thought about what had happened in Birkhoff's office just minutes earlier…and she realized that she had felt completely comfortable the entire time that she was there. Aside from the weird feeling in her stomach, which she quickly attributed to the aftereffects of the electro-shock. _It couldn't have been anything else_, she thought to herself as she finally drifted off to sleep.

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><p><strong>Please be kind and leave a review!<strong>


	13. Deadly Game

**A/N: I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter. Also, before you start reading I want to let everyone know that I do have the next chapter already written, but I wanted to say something about the reviews first. I don't mind if you don't review every single chapter, but hearing what you think about the story every once and awhile would really make me happy! So please, _please _take the time to review every once and awhile. Even if it's short, I really do appreciate hearing what everybody thinks about the story, whether it's good, bad, somewhere in between, or if you have any advice at all! :)  
><strong>

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><p>Imogen walked behind Sara, Alex, Thom, and Robbie as they entered their training area. There were six of them; Luke walked behind her. They stood in formation, three in the front and three in the back. When they turned to face the front of the room, Michael came walking down and stood in front of them.<p>

"Good morning," he said. "Some of you have been in training here longer than others, but none of you have experienced real world combat as part of a strike team. So today we will be testing your skills…in a simulated close quarters fire fight."

Michael paused for a brief moment before continuing.

"Team Alpha will be Thom, Imogen, and Luke. Team Omega; Robbie, Alex, and Sara," he said. "During this sim, while you are trying to survive, you'll only have a second to decide…who is your friend, and who is your enemy. So choose carefully."

As she shoved the simulation glasses onto her face, Imogen moved off to the side with Thom and Luke to discuss strategy.

"Luke and I will cover the front," Thom began.

"And I'm to cover the rear, right?" she finished.

"Yea, that ok?" said Luke.

"Fine by me," she replied.

Much to Imogen's disappointment, the exercise did not last very long, thanks to Sara from the other team. Even though she was happy that they won, after all it meant that there would be no punishments for them, she would have loved for it to go on a little bit longer.

While she was changing, she heard Alex and Sara talking in low voices to each other.

"I got activated this morning," Sara said.

"For a mission?" Alex asked.

"Yea, I know. Why me, right? Bottom of the barrel," she replied.

"Let me help you," Alex said.

"How?" Sara asked.

_This is beginning to look suspicious…_Imogen thought to herself.

"After they brief you, come see me. We can go over the plan together; help you prep for the mission," Alex answered.

"Okay…maybe. Thanks," Sara said, nodding her head.

Imogen was curious; no recruits ever offered to help another on a mission, everyone was out for themselves, no matter what they said.

Imogen went looking for Robbie at that point; he had seemed incredibly upset when they lost, and he was probably feeling like shit now that Sara had been activated. He had obviously heard Alex and Sara talking; she could see it on his face as he left. It didn't take too long to find him; he was just sitting with his back against the wall in one of the halls.

"It's going to be fine you know," she said.

"Is it though?" he asked her.

"Look, you are supposed to graduate soon, right?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied.

"Then don't worry about it!" she said to him. "Nothing is going to change that; not even Sara being activated."

"But I just don't get it!" he said, putting his head in his hands.

"They'll have their reasons," she replied. "Now, I should really get going. You should as well, don't sit here all day."

Imogen patted Robbie on the shoulder and then continued walking down the hall. She was lost in her thoughts about what Alex could have meant by "helping" Sara on her mission…was she going to sabotage it or do something else, when she ran into Birkhoff. She noticed that he had a gun and her heart nearly stopped.

"Holy shit," she breathed. "You scared the life out of me!"

"The safety's on," he said. "But hello to you too Immy. Are you feeling any better?"

"Yes, loads better. Thanks for asking," she replied, a small smile lighting up her face. "I think I just needed a break from things, you know?"

"Like a vacation…oh I need one of those too," he said, putting the gun away completely.

"Too much work?" she asked.

"Something like that yeah," he answered.

"I've got to go now, but I'll see you later?" she said.

"Yep, see you soon," he replied.

Imogen waved to Birkhoff as she walked away. She was walking towards her room, intent on getting some more rest before she had to actually do something, when she heard footsteps and voices. She hid herself against a wall and in a corner so that she was hidden from view.

"What do you mean? They cancelled the mission"

"No."

It was Alex and Sara again, no doubt talking about the mission.

_Why must this happen to me_, Imogen thought. _I always overhear this stuff._

"So tell me," Alex said.

"Why do you want to know so bad?" Sara asked.

"I told you, I want to help," Alex replied.

"I don't need it," Sara said.

"Sara please," Alex said.

Imogen could hear the fluttering of papers falling onto the floor; one of them must have been carrying something. She figured that it was most likely Sara; probably details about the mission.

"What's the problem?" Alex asked.

"Look, I'm sorry alright? The mission's top secret," Sara replied. "And…Percy trusts me, and I don't want to screw that up. I can't… It's not dangerous, just a listen and learn. No wetwork."

"Who's the target?" Alex asked.

_Wow, she wants to know badly_, Imogen realized.

"I'll tell you when I get back," Sara responded. "Tell Robbie I'm trying not to suck."

Imogen came out of the corner once Alex's and Sara's footsteps had faded, and finally made it back to her room. She always seemed to walk in on these conversations; little things whispered in dark areas where no one else, but her it seemed, could hear them.

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><p>"I want to know how the lowest ranking recruit gets assigned to the field before me!"<p>

Imogen could hear Robbie protesting as Thom led him to a table next to where she was sitting; one where Alex was already seated.

"I know how. Sit down," Thom ordered. "Look, you're right about Sara. She doesn't rank with you in tradecraft, but she is genuine, and a good listener."

"What does that have to do with tradecraft?" Robbie demanded.

"Nothing, that's my point. Whatever mission they have her doing; they need someone who doesn't look like a fighter. Someone you don't notice…A female you don't notice," Thom said, and turned his gaze over to Alex.

Deciding that this conversation wasn't worth listening to anymore, Imogen got up from her table and went to see if she could find Birkhoff in his office. When she got there however, the place was deserted with no sign of him anywhere, aside from all of his stuff. She sighed a little, and then just turned around and left the same way that she came in.

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><p>Imogen had been in the computer lab for the past couple of hours since she couldn't seem to find Birkhoff. She was practicing every single exercise that she could get her hands on in this place. Since Imogen couldn't access her computer at her apartment without alerting Division, she had to make do with what she had. She couldn't get rusty; once she was out of here she needed to find the people who murdered her family.<p>

She vaguely registered Alex and Robbie talking at one point; she heard something about being trained to be James Bond…but she wasn't really paying attention. Finally, they got to be a bit too distracting and she left the computer lab to go to the training room and work up her endurance. While she could run well and for a decent amount of time, she still needed to work on her endurance. If nothing else, she just didn't want to be chased around and then cornered again.

There weren't many recruits in the training area when she got there; which was a little odd. But then again, many of them were probably trying to slack off and get some rest. Not that she could blame them. No one was going to notice that they weren't practicing; Percy, Amanda, Michael, and Birkhoff were all in Operations monitoring Sara's mission. They were all occupied on one recruit.

Imogen had a bad feeling about that mission; like Sara wasn't going to come out of it unscathed, but she quickly shook off the feeling and focused on her running. She cranked up the speed a little bit, and increased the incline so that it would be much harder than trying to run on relatively flat ground; like a cobblestone street. If she could run for quite some time up a mountain, she was sure to run for even longer on a street that had no hills, just twists and turns.

After a couple hours, Imogen switched from the treadmill to some weight training. Sure, she was probably going to burn herself out, but at least she would sleep well tonight and she wouldn't be thinking about…other things. She looked around the room a little bit, and noticed Robbie standing in the center of the room in a guard's uniform. She cringed inside for him; he was really looking forward to making field agent and he was stuck down here forever.

Imogen increased heaviness of the weights she was lifting when she heard a gunshot, then another guard running in yelling about gunshots. She looked up, and Robbie advanced towards this new guard and shot him twice.

_Oh shit,_ she thought, and ran to the side of them room and tried to get out of the way. Robbie had clearly snapped, and she didn't want to be on the other end of that gun. It didn't take long for Robbie to leave the training area, presumably to find some more people to shoot other than the recruits, and Imogen took that time to run. She wasn't going to make it to her room…people were moving around that hallway; it was crowded and she didn't know where Robbie was going to go.

"Where the hell can I go?" she muttered to herself, looking around.

She needed to get to cover quickly or she would end up being shot. Then it came to her.

"I can go to the computer lab…they have places to hide in there," she said, and then ran off in that direction, careful to hide behind walls when she needed to.

Once she arrived at the computer lab, she hide underneath the tiny set of stairs; no one would look under there, so she was as safe as she was going to get for now. Even though it was a small space, it wasn't closed off on either end, so all that she had to deal with was her breathing; which was just slightly faster than normal.

"You're good," she whispered. "Just breathe deeply."

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><p><em>They killed him. All Robbie wanted was to travel the world and…be James Bond,<em> Imogen thought.

She was in her room, pacing, after having been hiding underneath the staircase for quite some time. She had seen Thom around before she came here, and he told her the news. Apparently Robbie had been holding Alex "hostage" at one point, and she had to stick him with his own taser, allowing some guards to catch him.

Deciding that it just wasn't worth worrying over, Imogen climbed into her bed and promptly fell asleep. Before she knew it, it was morning and there was a knock on her door. She had been asleep for what felt like mere minutes; but it had obviously been a few hours. When the door opened Amanda stepped in.

"We have another mission for you," she said.

"Is it a graduation mission?" Imogen asked, as she turned to face Amanda.

"No, it's still a provisional assignment, but even so, it is extremely important." Amanda replied.

"Alright," Imogen nodded, and she followed Amanda out of her room.


	14. Caught Me Off Guard

**A/N: I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this, but I decided against it. However, I would really really love it if everyone could take some time to review this chapter. I am proud of it and I would love to know what everyone thinks.**

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><p>As it turned out, the mission was relatively simple. All Imogen had to do was gather some information about what seemed to be a legitimate business on the outside. However, like Michael and Amanda explained to her, Division had reason to believe that this business was actually working in the black market trading industry and was selling everything from low level drugs to high powered weapons. So in short, Imogen was doing the dirty work of gathering all the intelligence that they needed in order to confirm the suspicions and then leave the follow through to "real Division agents".<p>

Reading through the files, Imogen formulated her own plan on how to get the information. The business in question was a club downtown, and the boss, the man who held the information that, if it existed, proved they were in the black market industry. Imogen read on the papers that the boss, someone named Mark, had a girlfriend. That was Imogen's in. She would make friends with this girl and see if she could make her way into the backrooms of the club, or at least be able to sneak in there without anyone noticing. She traced her finger across a path in the blueprints she was provided with, and figured that if she made her excuses to go to the ladies' room, she would be able to crawl through the vents and into the back area. As long as she didn't take longer than about fifteen to twenty minutes back there, she would be able to get back to the girl without raising any alarms. A bonus was that she would have an alibi according to the girl, if anyone should ask her about something.

The mission was simple; get in, find the information, and get out.

Now if only life at Division was that easy…

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><p>A few hours before she was due to get ready and leave for her mission, Imogen was in the training area working the heavy bag. She had blindfolded herself so that she could barely see anything, and sent the bag swinging. She tried to hear went it came close to her, and made sure that her punches, when she threw them, were done at close range. After all, most hand to hand fights were won by using underhanded tricks, and at close range.<p>

"How's that working for you?" someone asked.

"It's working brilliantly Thom. Thanks for asking," Imogen responded as she ducked a blow from the heavy bag.

"How long have you been at that anyways?" he asked.

"Not for too long, only had the idea last night," she answered, holding out her hands to stop the bag.

Imogen took off her blindfold and turned to look at Thom.

"I decided that I needed more practice in hand to hand combat," she explained.

"Why? Do you have a mission or something? You usually have enough time to practice these things before graduation…they won't send you out until you're good enough, so why the rush?" he said.

"No particular reason really, I just need something to occupy my time. I can't very well practice computers all the time, now can I?" she replied, grabbing her water bottle and taking a swig.

"Oh ok," he said, looking off in another direction. "I better go now, just remembered that I have to do something."

As he ushered off, Imogen looked in the direction that he was going. There was Alex there…he was going to see her again.

"Figures," she muttered. "If that boy isn't careful he's going to blow his chances and her chances of making it through this place."

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><p>For the first hour of her mission, Imogen was simply mingling with the crowd at the club. She was dancing in a group, establishing herself there. She knew that if she went off immediately and then left, that would be that and she would raise some red flags…no one wanted that. If helping Division out until she could plan an escape route was her only way to survive, then so be it.<p>

"Girlfriend's at the bar," Birkhoff said into her ear.

"Thanks," she said, even though she knew that he wouldn't be able to hear her over the music and the other noise.

Imogen threaded through t the crowd, making her way over to the bar, where the boss' girlfriend was sitting.

"Can I get a Tequila Sunrise please?" she asked the bartender as she slipped into the stool next to the woman.

After a brief moment, Imogen turned to her and said, "Hi, I'm Imogen. Do you like this place? It's my first time here, I haven't gotten used to it yet."

"I'm Angie," the woman replied. "It's pretty great here; my boyfriend owns the place. I do like to go to some other clubs though…a change of scenery, you know?"

"I understand. That's actually why I'm here; a change of scenery. Not from another club though, from work. It's been getting to me lately," Imogen said, accepting her drink from the bartender. "How did your boyfriend come to own a place like this, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I think that he inherited it from his father or something," she answered. "I'm not completely sure, to be honest."

"You're one lucky lady to have a boyfriend who owns a club!" Imogen exclaimed.

"I guess so, free drinks whenever I want," Angie said. "What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Nope, I'm on my own. Kind of sucks really, it gets lonely sometimes," Imogen said, sipping her drink.

"I know exactly what you mean. I was so lonely before Mark came along," Angie said.

"Mark? Is that your boyfriend's name?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's him," Angie answered.

"How long have you two been together?" she asked.

"About a year and a half," Angie responded.

"That's great!" Imogen exclaimed. "Oooh sorry, I have to go to the ladies room. I should only be a few minutes; we'll talk more when I get back?"

"Yea sure," Angie said.

It didn't take Imogen that long to reach the restroom. Once she did, she quickly checked to see if anyone else was in there. Finding no one, she turned on her comm unit.

"Alright, I'm about to make my way through the ventilation system. Is everything clear?" she asked.

"Yep, you're good. Just remember not to make too much noise. I suggest taking off your heels," Birkhoff replied.

"I'm doing that now," she replied. "This had better go smoothly...and quickly too, for that matter. I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

"You should be fine," Birkhoff said. "I'll be monitoring their security cameras from here to make sure that you don't get caught. I'll wipe the footage if need be as well, though I know that Percy prefers it when I don't."

"Thanks Birkhoff, you're a life saver. Remind me to thank you when I get back, okay?" Imogen said, climbing into the vents.

"Will do," Birkhoff replied.

The comm unit went silent after that as they were trying to make sure that Imogen went in as silent as possible. Only a minute or two passed before Imogen reached her chosen drop point.

'I'm right above the drop point, is it clear?" she asked.

"You're good to go," Birkhoff confirmed.

Imogen dropped herself onto the ground, leaving her heels in the vents. She was in the back area, and she quickly located Mark's office. She tried turning the handle, and to her surprise the door was unlocked.

"I'm in," she whispered to Birkhoff. "Now, where should I be looking first? He's got a computer out on his desk, I could look there?"

"Check any drawers and closets; find secret compartments if you can," Birkhoff answered. "I wouldn't bother with the computer that's in plain view; he probably doesn't have anything on it. If you find another one that was hidden though, I would check it out."

"Alright, I'm on it. We'll stay silent until I'm back in the vents, or if someone's coming okay?" she whispered.

"Good luck," Birkhoff said, and the comm went dead.

Imogen checked drawer after drawer, giving each a quick onceover and checking to see if there were any hidden compartments. Finally, she got to the back closet. Walking in there didn't seem to be anything of worth, until she stumbled a bit and a door just slid open.

"Well isn't that James Bond," she muttered.

Stepping through the door and staying on high alert, Imogen kept her eyes peeled. When she looked around, she was in shock. There were weapons lining the walls, and bags that she assumed were filled with various drugs. Imogen slipped out her camera, taking photos of every angle that she could. There was a small laptop in the corner, so Imogen hacked it and inserted a USB flash drive, copying every single file that she could. Division could look over it later; she had to get out of there.

"Someone's coming in!" Birkhoff said.

"Shit," she whispered.

Imogen looked around the room, to see if there was a good hiding spot or an escape route. She could hear people talking in the outside office and walking into the closet that she had just come from. Making a split second decision, Imogen hid in the bottom compartment of some sort of dresser next to the door, which was blissfully empty. As she saw the two men walk in she held her breath; trying not to make a sound. They talked for awhile, though Imogen only caught snippets of their conversation. After a few minutes, they left the room and Imogen was able to climb out of her hiding place. Not wanting to risk coming out of the room at that point, after all they could still be in the outer office, Imogen looked around the ceiling and spotted another vent. She lifted off the screen and climbed up into it, sliding the screen over the whole once she was up so that they wouldn't suspect a thing

She crawled as fast and as silently as she could through the vents. Once she reached the place where she had left her heels, she grabbed them and pressed on her comm unit.

"I'm in the clear," she whispered. "Going to rejoin the girlfriend for a little while, and then I'm out of here, okay?"

"Good job Imogen," Birkhoff said. "You had me going there for a second."

"I had myself going," she whispered as she dropped back into the ladies room.

Straightening her dress, Imogen exited the restroom and made her way back to Angie.

"Sorry I took awhile," she said. "Someone got sick in the restroom and I stayed to help so they wouldn't make a mess."

"It's alright," Angie replied. "I ordered you another drink; you were having a Tequila Sunrise before right?"

"Yea, that's right," she said.

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><p>When Imogen returned to Division, she was ushered straight into Operations where Percy, Amanda, Michael, and Birkhoff were waiting.<p>

"He had a massive amount of weapons lining the walls, and what looked to be bags of illegal drugs as well," she said as soon as the room was cleared. "I copied as many files off of his computer as I could, although I didn't have time to search through them."

"It's not a problem," Percy said. "They can be sorted through later."

"What matters here is that you did a good, clean job and you got the information," Michael said.

"Thanks," she replied. "Is it alright if I go now?"

"Go ahead, you've earned it," said Amanda.

Imogen turned and left Operations, heading towards her room and the showers so that she could get cleaned up. It was a little late, but she wasn't really tired yet. She thought that after she was cleaned up from this mission she could go and see Birkhoff, who was bound to have returned to his office by then.

She was smiling to herself as she showered and dressed, and was even more excited as she reached Birkhoff's office.

"You there?" she called out.

"On the couch," Birkhoff replied.

"Hey Birkhoff," she said.

"You did really well today," he said. "Despite the fact that you nearly scared the life out of me back there that is."

"Sorry!" she said, sitting next to him. "I'm glad it's over now. Do you have any video games or something that we could play?"

"I have lots, but they're all shooting games," he said, grabbing a game out of the cabinet. "Is Mortal Kombat okay?"

"Sure, it's still a game," she responded, taking a controller. "Watch me whoop your ass!"

"Oh really? I've played these games many times, I'm quite good," he said, smirking a little.

"Bring it on!" she said, turning to face the screen.

Over the next hour or so, the two of them sat on the couch; faces glued to the television screen. Imogen, though she was decent at the game, was still being beaten by Birkhoff. That is until she had an awesome idea. Imogen reached over and yanked Birkhoff's controller out of his hands, then leaned back from him; attempting to hold the controller a little bit out of his reach.

"Hey!" he protested. "That's not fair!"

"So?" she said, raising an eye brow.

"Give that back!" he said, reaching out for the controller.

Imogen stretched as far as she could, but then had to jump off of the couch in order to prevent Birkhoff from taking his controller back. He quickly followed her, and managed to get her cornered after about three minutes. He walked towards her with a smirk on his face.

"Come on now Immy, give the controller back," he said, holding out his hand. "Are you afraid that I'm going to keep beating you?"

"In your dreams buddy," she said, holding the controller as high as she possibly could.

Birkhoff kept walking towards her, reaching one hand up to grab the controller. She looked straight at him, realizing how close they were. A moment of silence passed before Birkhoff leaned in a little, waited a second as if he was asking permission, and captured her lips with his.

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><p><strong>muahahahaha :) Please review if you want the update to come quickly ;)<strong>


	15. Turning Tables

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. It's really nice to hear from you! I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter. My graduation is on Thursday, so I wanted to update this beforehand. I just hope I don't trip while on stage...that would suck. Anyways, read on, and don't forget to review!**

**Update: I am putting a poll up on my profile regarding the length of time between certain episodes of Nikita. Please respond as it is very important to this story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Nikita  
><strong>

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><p><em>Breath in…Breath out<em>, she told herself.

It was the morning after her _visit _to Birkhoff, and Imogen was still left breathless. She was lying in her bed just staring at the ceiling…she could barely process her thoughts about last night.

The kiss hadn't lasted too long, but it had been the kind that made you go weak in the knees almost instantly. She closed her eyes and smiled, just remembering every single detail of the event. But there were two big problems with this…

The first one was the fact that Imogen knew full well that if they continued down the road that they were going, she was running the risk of being caught and then cancelled. Birkhoff might be as well, and while she risked her life a lot, she wouldn't put his on the line if she could help it.

Then there was the biggest problem; even bigger than the threat of cancellation. Could she out her heart on the line? Everyone that Imogen loved, like her family, or been involved with, had left her; willingly or not. Imogen was always left bitter, alone, and in tears. Was it worth it?

"I don't know," she whispered to herself.

Even though she was conflicted, Imogen knew that she had to get out of bed and go to training. Nothing would get solved just lying there; plus she didn't want anyone to come looking for her.

"Just focus on training," she said as she got dressed. "Do that and you'll be okay."

After Imogen arrived in the training area, she noticed that something was a little off. Thom, who was nearly always there, was nowhere to be found, though Alex was there. Pursing her lips, Imogen just carried on and set up the heavy bag once more. She was getting a whole lot better at hearing the bag come close to her; she was bound to be a more efficient fighter when she got out of there.

The next few hours passed with Imogen practicing with the heavy bag and working up her endurance. However, when Birkhoff walked along the hall in the training room that led to Operations, she had to stop what she was doing and walk to the other side of the room; on the pretense of taking a drink from her water bottle. Knowing that he would be back, Imogen gathered her things, left the training room, and headed down towards the shooting range. She hadn't been there in awhile and she knew that her gun skills were still lacking and could be improved.

_I'm not avoiding him_, she thought. _I'm really not._

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><p>Birkhoff walked by the training area on his way to Operations. He glanced at the recruits, and noticed Imogen in the crowd. For a moment, it looked like she saw him, but when she turned and walked across to the other side of the room he assumed that she hadn't.<p>

Shaking his head, he ripped open a package of Twizzlers, sat down in a chair, and got to work. He was bound to see her in the computer lab later; they could talk about last night at that point. Birkhoff knew that it was wrong, and that Percy would flip if he ever found out, but…if it made them happy, was it worth it?

He tried to stay focused, but for the most part he was completely distracted. However, Birkhoff managed to pull it together when Michael walked into put the finishing touches on an operation that would take place tonight.

"Do you have his tracker ready to insert tomorrow morning?" Michael asked.

"Yes," Birkhoff replied. "I take you are confident that he will succeed then?"

"Thom's one of the more promising recruits," Michael said. "I have no doubt that he will succeed tonight."

"But what if Nikita gets involved?" Birkhoff asked.

"She won't," he replied. "Barely anyone knows about this operation; it's secure."

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><p>Imogen walked straight up to the target in the shooting range and drew a red circle over the heart. She then chose her gun, loaded it, and took her place, with her back to the shooting range. Taking a deep breath, Imogen just listened for any sounds in the shooting range. It was completely silent until-<p>

_BANG!_

She had whipped around and shot at the target with only one hand. When she lowered her gun and looked at where she had hit; a gaping hole in the middle of the red circle told her that she had hit it perfectly.

For the next couple of hours Imogen practiced this over and over again, in an attempt to make sure that it wasn't just a fluke and that she could do it every single time. She also knew that barely anyone came down there, so she would have her time to think.

"Are you okay?" someone asked.

"I'm fine Thom," she replied, setting her gun down and turning towards him. "I'm just practicing my aim, that's it."

"I see," he said. "How long have you been at this?"

"A couple hours," she responded, folding her arms.

"That long? Shouldn't you take a break or something?" he asked.

"No," she said. "By the way, why are you not wearing your recruit uniform? Do you have a mission or something?"

"I do actually," he answered. "I've got my graduation mission. If everything goes well, I will be a field agent this evening when I return."

"Congratulations," she said. "I just remembered that I have to go do something. IS that okay?"

"Yea, see you later," he said, letting Imogen leave the shooting range.

_So Thom was becoming an agent,_ she thought. _I guess he didn't screw it up with his attraction to Alex after all._

As soon as she reached the main floor, Imogen bumped into Birkhoff.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

"Sorry, can it wait?" she responded. "There's something important that I almost forgot to do and I don't want to get in trouble for not doing it."

"Alright," he replied.

Imogen waved goodbye and started to walk away; completely missing the slight tone of sadness in Birkhoff's voice. She walked all the way to the computer lab and began to work on random little things; just to pass the time before she had to go to bed again. It had been a slow day, but hectic at the same time.

As much as she would have liked to, Imogen just could not ignore the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hated avoiding Birkhoff, but she just did not know what to do about this! How could she face him, and talk to him about last night…when she didn't know what she thought they should do?

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><p>Later on that day, when Imogen was on her way back to her room, she ran into Thom who was all dressed up in a nice suit.<p>

"Did you pass then?" she asked.

"Yea, I'm officially a field agent now," he replied, not smiling.

"Are you okay? You don't seem very happy," she said, sounding concerned.

"I'm fine, nothing's wrong. A bit nervous is all," he said.

"Alright," she said. "Well, I suppose that this is goodbye?"

"Not forever," he said. "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

"True enough, you couldn't get rid of me either," she said.

"I do have to ask you a favour though," he said.

"Sure, what is it?" she asked.

"Could you show me how to do that thing with the heavy bag? With the blindfold?" he asked. "I see you doing that a lot in training, and I thought that it might help me out."

"Oh, look at that. An agent looking for a recruit's help?" she teased.

"I wouldn't think that we are that far apart," he said. "I've only been an agent for what? An hour?"

"I suppose so, I'm just teasing," she replied. "I'd be happy to show you, though I suggest that you change into something else for the first time."

Imogen made her way to the training room and set up the heavy bag. A few minutes later and Thom showed up, ready to practice.

"So the first thing you do is put on the blindfold," she said, holding out a piece of cloth for Thom and letting him tie it over his eyes.

"Next?" he asked.

"The next thing is to just dive right into it," she said. "What I'm going to do is shove the bag a little bit so that it begins to swing. What I want you to do is listen for when the bag some close. That's when you throw your punches or kicks. Make sure that you bring yourself close to the bag."

"Fights are won at close range," he said. "I remember that."

"Are you ready?" she asked. "It might take you a little while to get the hang of it, but I'm sure that you are a fast learner."

"I'm ready as I'll ever be," he said, with a nod of his head.

"Go!" she said, and pushed the heavy bag.

The next few minutes were filled with Thom being knocked around by the bag, with Imogen's calls of "Focus!" every so often. But then Thom started getting the hang of it and wasn't being knocked over nearly as much as he was before.

"Remember to listen for the bag," Imogen said. "Don't bother trying to see through the blindfold; you need to listen for it. If it helps you can also wait and feel for the breeze that precedes the bag hitting you."

She swung the bag once more, and this time stepped back and didn't say anything to Thom. She just let him work through it on his own; she couldn't keep helping him.

After fifteen more minutes of practicing, Imogen noticed the time and then steadied the bag with her heads.

"I should probably get to sleep now," she told Thom. "I hope this helped you, you could probably practice on your own if you want to."

"Thanks for the help," he said, removing the blindfold. "I'll see you around sometime."

The two of them said their goodbyes and then Imogen made her way back to her room. She was exhausted, but was glad that she had accomplished something constructive that day.

As Imogen turned the corner to the hall that lead to her room, she felt a hand close over her wrist and she nearly flipped out and hit the person. Until she realized it was Birkhoff, and instead she calmed down a little bit, but then tore her arm away.

"You've been avoiding me," he said.

"No I haven't," she replied.

"You have though! Did I do something wrong?" he asked. "I knew that I shouldn't have done what I did…I knew it."

"It's not that…" she said. "Well, it is."

"What?" he asked.

"I just don't know what we should do. It's bad enough that we could both be killed but..." she started.

"But what? Isn't it worth it if we are happy? I've thought about this very hard, believe me. I'm not taking this lightly," he said.

"Birkhoff," she said seriously, a tear threatening to escape her eye. "I've been hurt too much in the past. Every single person that I have ever cared about, whether they're family or I was involved with them…they all left me. I don't know if I could put myself on the line again, not after everything that I have been through."

"Don't you trust me?" he asked. "I'm a nerd; I would never, ever leave."

"The leaving wasn't always voluntary," she said, the tear finally escaping. "My mother was killed and I barely remember her now. My father was murdered in his hospital bed: I don't even know why. Do you think that they wanted to leave? No. Could you look me straight in the eyes and promise that it would never happen with us?"

"Well no…I can't really promise that," he started. "But would you rather live the rest of your life alone because of what _might _happen? Or would you rather be happy; even if it's not for too long? Don't think for one second that I'm not afraid about this either. I've never really done something completely against the rules like this before. But, and forgive me for comparing this to a video game, it's like taking the biggest risk in the Cave of Doom because you know that there is a chance that it will pay off in the end."

"I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know."

"Can you try?" he said. "I know that you want to be happy…you're just afraid."

"I know," she said.

Birkhoff could tell that she was incredibly sad and torn about what to do, so he didn't say anything else to her. All Birkhoff did was gather her in his arms and gave her a hug.

Imogen wasn't sure how long they stood there like that, but finally she pulled away from Birkhoff.

"I have to go," she said.

"Goodnight," he whispered as she walked away.

As Imogen entered her room, she couldn't help but look back at Birkhoff's retreating form and let a small smile break across her face.

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><p><strong>Please review! (And don't worry about the situation that Birkhoff and Imogen are in-it doesn't mean that they won't be together...or will be? can't tell you...XD)<strong>


	16. Body Language

**A/N: Only a few people have responded to the poll; all with different answers. So I cannot really make a definite choice. So please, all of you reading this story, help me out! Like I said before, this is extremely important for the story. Also, I know for a fact that there was a week in between Covenant and Into the Dark. I got this information from an interview that someone (I think a producer, director or writer) on the Nikita crew did.** **Hopefully that helps! So anyways, I hope that you enjoy this chapter, and please review! By the way, this chapter (and the next one) take place the day after One Way. :)**

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><p>As much as Imogen tried to concentrate on the task at hand, she kept messing up. She never ever messed up computer work, but here she was in the lab on her spare time and failing at the exercises that she was trying.<p>

Her mind was elsewhere; she was thinking about Birkhoff again. She had a big dilemma to consider here. It was the simple, but also complicated matter of her heart telling her one thing and her head telling her something completely different. She would give anything to be in another situation, and then her choice would at least be a little bit easier. Sure, Imogen would still have to get over her insecurities and take that step, but at the very least she and Birkhoff wouldn't have the threat of cancellation breathing down their necks if they went for it.

Imogen kept trying to break through the firewall, but nothing she did helped. It was like every single thing she knew about computers had been drained out of her skull and she was one of those stupid girls who had to call up tech support every time the computer froze.

"God damnit!" she said, smacking the keyboard.

Birkhoff looked up from his laptop. He had been in the lab the whole time that she was, but didn't say anything to her out of courtesy. Birkhoff just took a step back from everything and had decided to let her come to her own decision. Even if that decision would hurt him, he wanted her to be comfortable with whatever she wanted to do. His body twitched as she started banging on the keyboard a little bit. He almost got out of his chair and went over to her; every muscle in his body wanted him to go and comfort her, but he knew that he couldn't do that. She had to come to him…for the first time anyways. Once she agreed, if she ever did, he wouldn't have to restrain himself. Unless anyone else was watching them, or was close enough to hear them talking. Otherwise, everything was okay.

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><p>Only an hour later and Imogen found herself in the shooting range again, trying to keep herself distracted. Just then another recruit came down the stairs.<p>

"Hey," said Alex.

"Hi," Imogen said shortly.

"Are you having a bad day?"Alex asked. "I saw that you were having trouble in the computer lab earlier. You're usually pretty good at that stuff."

"Yea, just having an off day," she replied.

"We all have one of those once in awhile," Alex said.

"I don't," Imogen responded. "I've just got a lot on my mind right now."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alex asked, picking up a gun.

"I don't think that you would understand," Imogen answered. "And I'd rather not talk about it anyone. Anyways, I had better be going now. You have a nice time down here."

As Imogen walked back up the stairs she thought about what just happened. She had wanted to talk to someone about this situation, but she knew that in Division there was no one that she could talk to. Save for Birkhoff of course, but since he was involved and not a third party, it wasn't a great idea.

"What should I do?" she whispered to herself.

Imogen went back to her room and just lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling. She felt like acting like a three year old child and wanted to start throwing a temper tantrum with her face in the pillow and just pounding her fists on the bed. She had to keep reminding herself about what she had to decide. Was she willing to risk both their lives on something that might not work? Or was she too afraid to take that risk, and miss out on the possibility of being incredibly happy? Eventually Imogen drifted off to sleep, despite the fact that it was relatively early in the evening.

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><p>"<em>What's that Mom?" a little girl asked, looking curiously at the box her mother was holding.<em>

"_It's a present for you, baby girl," her mother replied opening the box. "It's another charm for your pretty necklace that Daddy gave to you."_

_Her mother reached over and clipped a silver heart to the little girl's necklace._

"_Give it away when you're sure. I love you baby girl," her mother said. "I know that you will make the right decision. Be safe. Be strong."_

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><p>"<em>You PROMISED!" a younger Imogen yelled at a man in front of her.<em>

"_So what?" he snapped back. "You're just not enough. You're not even that pretty; give me one good reason why I should stay!"_

_She was just so shocked that he could say something that cruel, and it just prevented her from saying a word. The man scoffed, shook his head, and then walked out the door. Imogen fell to the floor, trying not to cry._

"_I guess it's time to leave…again," she muttered to herself._

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><p><em>A young woman crouched by the side of a road, holding a backpack and a little flower in her hands. IT seemed like she was about to travel somewhere, though with only the backpack it was hard to guess where.<em>

"_I've got to go now mom," she whispered. "They got to Dad, and he told me to run. I don't know what happened to him….he could be gone and in heaven just like you, or he could be in jail. I've just come from picking up this backpack. I don't know when I'll be back here…. Goodbye Mom, I love you."_

_The woman wiped a tear from her eye and laid the flower on a barely noticeable mound of dirt._

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><p>"<em>I'm leaving…"<em>

"_Your mother's not coming back."_

"_Get out now Gracie! You need to leave and save yourself."_

"_You're not even that pretty—give me one good reason why I should stay."_

"_Goodbye Da."_

"_I wish you could see it, I think you'd be proud of how far I've come."_

"_I miss you Da."_

Imogen shot up in her bed, sweating pouring off of her body. So many memories converging on her all at once, even recent ones. Her breathing was laboured as she dragged herself out of bed, but she managed to calm down enough to step out of her room and towards the showers. It was nearing the time when all of the other recruits would start waking up for the day, and she didn't want anyone to see her looking half dead and terrified. She just prayed that no one else was up this early and that she wouldn't run into any guards.

She turned the shower onto full blast and stepped inside. The hot water pouring onto her skin wasn't enough to erase the memories of the night before and the grief that they brought, but it was enough to mask the salty tears that were running down Imogen's cheeks. That was the best thing about showers and the rain; no one could tell if you were crying. Imogen hardly ever cried…but when she did she never wanted anyone to see her do so.

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><p>"For today's lesson you are going to be working with sniper rifles," Michael said to the recruits. "You will be blindfolded and you will put together and take apart the weapon in front of you as fast as you possibly can."<p>

Michael walked down the long table, placing a rifle and a blindfold in front of each of the recruits.

"Yes, you have done this exercise before," Michael said. "But each and every single one of you needs to be much faster at this. In the field you could have as little as ten seconds to put together your weapon."

"Why wouldn't we have out weapon already assembled?" asked Jaden.

"Sometimes you are not able to have it assembled Jaden," Michael replied. "It all depends on the mission that you are on. That is the exact reason why we need to go over this. You will need to be able to assemble and disassemble your weapon in ten seconds each way by the end of this exercise. If you can do that blindfolded, then you will be able to do it if you can see clearly."

Imogen picked up her blindfold and tied it around her head. She closed her eyes for good measure, and then once Michael said "Go", she grabbed for the pieces of her sniper rifle and started to put it together.

"Get it together Imogen," Michael said as she fumbled over a piece. "You need to get better at this. Tech won't get you everywhere."

Imogen just took a deep breath and continued the exercise. The second time that she fumbled a piece; Michael came and leant right beside her.

"Having a bad day isn't an excuse you know," he said in a low voice. "You're going to have to practice this until you get it. All recruits need to learn this stuff; the ones who don't won't last."

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Just work on it okay?" he said.

"I'll do my best," she replied, then got back to the exercise.

One after the other, the recruits left the room as they managed to finish the exercise. When there was only about four recruits left, Michael turned back to Imogen.

"Once you're done here, Amanda would like to see you," he said.

"Okay," Imogen replied, knowing enough not to ask why Amanda wanted to see her.

After about ten more minutes Imogen finally managed to complete the exercise. Even though she was clearly off her game today due to the situation with Birkhoff, although no one knew that it had something to do with him, she managed to finish something. Maybe that meant she was slowly dealing and adjusting to this situation?

Despite the fact that she had the entire day to think about whether she wanted to pursue a secret relationship with Birkhoff or not, Imogen had no idea what she wanted to do. Nevertheless, she couldn't think about it until later as she had something extremely important that she had to deal with immediately. Amanda wanted to see her, and so Imogen needed to mentally prepare herself. She could not let her know anything personal if it would get her, or anyone else, into trouble.

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><p>"You wanted to see me?" Imogen asked as she walked into Amanda's office.<p>

"Yes," Amanda replied. "I wanted to talk to you about a couple things; the interrogation exercise off grounds and then your most recent mission. Please take a seat."

Imogen sat down hesitantly, then looked at Amanda and waited for her to speak.

"During your holding period of the interrogation exercise, you seemed on edge. You seemed like you wanted to panic and you also looked like you were breathing quite heavily. Are you scared of small spaces or something?"

"No I'm not," Imogen lied, tensing up a tiny bit. "I'm just slightly uncomfortable with them."

"I feel that you need some practice on dealing with them," Amanda said. "Despite the fact that you managed to do your last mission well and you handled hiding yourself, you were still on edge. This is something that Division cannot tolerate. You have to be fearless; nothing can get in the way of you completing your mission, and it is clear that this 'uncomfortableness' with small spaces will be trouble for you in the future."

"I disagree," Imogen interrupted. "I can handle this on my own. I'm a big girl and I don't really need anyone's help."

"You might not want my help, but you will get it," Amanda said sternly. "Drink your tea."

"I don't like this tea," Imogen said, though she sipped it. "It tastes like boiling water."

"I don't care," Amanda said.

"I don't want your help, and that's final," Imogen said, downing the rest of her tea and standing up.

Imogen was on her way to the door when she started to feel woozy. Amanda had spiked her tea with something. She must have known that Imogen would not want her help; it was unlikely that a recruit ever did. Amanda probably had this down to an art by now.

Even though she tried to steady herself, Imogen's vision grew blurry and she fell to the floor. Amanda got up from her seat on the chair and walked over to Imogen's motionless body.

"I told you that you didn't have a choice," Amanda said, looking down at her. "Guards, move her to the room I requested be cleared earlier."

"Yes ma'am," a guard replied, bending over and scooping up Imogen's body.

The second guard held the door open, and the guard carrying Imogen moved out into the hall, Amanda following right behind him.


	17. Citadel

**A/N: Present! :D I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter and reviews! Also, I thought that I should let you know that while reading you should listen to _Citadel_ and _Consider This_ by Anna Nalick_. _Those are the two songs that I used for this chapter. Again, please leave a review once you're done reading! (One last thing..this chapter is extremely reminiscent of Amanda's interrogation of Alex when she panicked underneath the car in Rough Trade... XD I hope that I wrote this situation half as good as that particular scene)...Final thing, the actual full title of this chapter is: Citadel (Consider This).. the site just doesn't let me put in brackets  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: I do not own Nikita.**

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><p><em>Every time she breathed in no air was reaching her lungs. The lack of air caused her to cough, which in turn let the dirt fall into her mouth. Her eyes blinked, trying to open, but the dirt stung them and forced them shut.<em>

_The girl tried to move an arm and wiggle her fingers, but the movement was limited. She tried to slow her breathing; even though she was quite young she had enough sense to know that the oxygen was running out. Could she move her hands and feet enough to claw her way out?_

_The girl tried moving her body as much as she could to see if she could somehow make her way out of the ground, but the dirt just kept on falling in her face. Out of sheer desperation, tears started to fall out of the girl's eyes and down her cheeks. She was going to die in the ground…buried alive at eight years old._

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><p>Imogen's eyes shot open and she tried to sit up, but her forehead smashed against some glass. Since she couldn't see past it, Imogen figured that there was some sort of fabric covering the container that she was lying in. She tried to control her breathing, but her breaths went from long and deep to shorter and shallow. She closed her eyes again in an effort to concentrate and calm herself down, but then she heard footsteps from outside the box. The sound was the same as high heels against a concrete floor.<p>

_Amanda_, she though venomously. _The evil queen bitch drugged me. All to be her little experiment- her play toy._

"Imogen," Amanda said, walking around the box. "You have been put in there because you need to get over this irrational fear of yours. You are going to talk through it."

Imogen just kept her eyes shut tight and didn't even attempt to respond to Amanda.

"This has been run through many times," Amanda continued. "Bring your heart rate down to 51 best per minute, and calm your breathing, and then you will be released from the jacket and the box."

After another minute of Imogen's silence, Amanda spoke again.

"You have to let go of this," Amanda said. "This kind of liability will hinder you; Division cannot promote any recruit with your problem."

"I don't want to talk to you," she said.

"You don't have a choice," Amanda replied.

* * *

><p>Birkhoff was pacing back and forth in his office. He had just had a class with all of the recruits, well most of them anyways, and Imogen never showed up. Even if she was unsure, it wasn't like her to miss a single training exercise or one of his computer sessions.<p>

"Where is she?" he muttered to himself.

A few minutes later, Michael came down to his office and found him pacing.

"Are you okay Birkhoff?" Michael asked.

"Yea, I'm fine. Just trying to figure out how to beat a mob boss on a video game," he lied.

"I see…" Michael said. "Well anyways, I came in here to let you know that you need to go through the footage of a recent mission."

"Which one?" he asked.

"The one that took place at a club downtown," Michael said. "I believe that the mission was done by a recruit…Imogen, I think."

"What am I looking for?" Birkhoff asked.

"Just go through it and make sure that everything went smoothly on her part," Michael replied. "Amanda's gotten her hands on her and it's something to do with this mission."

"Ouch," Birkhoff said. "That mission went really well though, what could have gone wrong?"

"I'm not sure," Michael said. "I think that it's just an excuse for Amanda to scare a recruit."

"Is this going on right now?" he asked.

"Yea, make sure we get this done quickly," Michael replied.

* * *

><p>"Talk," Amanda said.<p>

Imogen weighed her options. She knew that she couldn't tell Amanda the truth…that would raise way too many questions. She was a pretty good liar, and just as long as Birkhoff never revealed that he knew about this fear, let alone part of the true story, she would be able to get through this.

"Fine. The trigger to this was when I was around six years old," she lied. "I was playing hide and seek with my older brother…"

_A funny smelling cloth was pressed to the child's face, in an attempt to muffle her screams. One man held it there until the child passed out, and then picked her up, carrying her alongside a couple other men who were carrying the battered body of a woman; the child's mother._

"I hid in the crawlspace," she continued. "I crawled my way over the boxes to the back or the crawlspace so that my brother would have a hard time finding me…"

_The men dropped the two bodies and grabbed some shovels. They began to dig two holes side by side; they were about the size of a regular grave._

"I just didn't know that the door had locked behind me," she said, taking a deep breath. "Then a couple of the boxes fell on top of me. I couldn't move."

_They began to shovel the dirt onto the little child and her mother. The bodies didn't twitch a bit as the dirt hit them; they were completely motionless._

"_Serves them right," one of the men said._

_The rest of them broke out into laughter._

* * *

><p>"There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary Michael," Birkhoff said.<p>

"Nothing?" Michael asked.

"Basically," Birkhoff replied. "I can't really think of anything that could have caught Amanda's attention."

"What about when she hid in that little closet place?" Michael asked, pointing at the screen.

"Doubtful," Birkhoff lied. "She seems perfectly calm for someone who knows there are people who would probably kill her just outside of that space. So if she is scared, she's dealing with it really well."

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><p>"I don't know how long I was in there for," she said. "My brother forgot about me…he couldn't even hear me screaming."<p>

_The little girl's eyes shot open for a brief moment, before the dirt forced them shut again. She tried to breathe, but no air was reaching her lungs. She started coughing and gasping, but all that did was cause dirt to fall into her mouth. She tried to scream, but no sound came out._

"My dad found me later on," she said. "He finally heard me screaming."

_There was scratching above the girl's head, and she could finally move her fingers a bit. The person uncovering her grave stopped shoveling, and lifted the little girl out of the dirt after digging some more with his bare hands._

"_It's okay now, you're safe," he murmured._

"Amanda," a voice said.

"Michael…Birkhoff," Amanda replied. "What are you two doing here?"

"I've come to stop whatever it is that you are doing, with the recruit," Michael said. "Birkhoff and I have gone over the footage from her last mission, and there is no cause for concern. We have come to the conclusion that even if your suspicions are correct, she is dealing with it just fine on her own."

"I disagree," Amanda said.

"So what? You love getting inside recruit's heads; even if it's for no reason at all," Michael countered.

"I have my reasons," she said.

"I don't care. You do not mess with the recruits that I bring in. If you go out and bring them in yourself, then have at it," he said. "Birkhoff, get her out of that box."

"I'm on it," Birkhoff replied.

Imogen just stayed quiet the entire time. She had long since given up on trying to keep herself calm; though it wasn't immediately visible, she was trembling in the box. It only took a minute or two for Birkhoff to open the box, and then he held out his hand to help her out of it. His eyes flickered and looked concerned for a moment when he felt that she was trembling.

"Imogen," Michael said. "Are you afraid of small spaces?"

"Not really," she lied. "Well not anymore. I used to be, after I got stuck under some boxes in the crawlspace in my house when I was 6. But I worked through that a long time ago."

"See Amanda?" he said, turning back to her. "Next time, do your research. You can go by the way Imogen; you don't need to be here anymore."

Imogen looked at Amanda, Michael, and Birkhoff, before she turned on her heel and walked out of the room. She didn't want to be there when they really went at each other's throats.

When she was walking around Division, Imogen took a turn to go to Birkhoff's office and not back to her room. She knew that he wasn't going to be in there, since he was in with Amanda and Michael at the moment, but she felt the need to go there.

Once she arrived, she opened his little mini bar fridge. Despite the fact that she didn't believe the advertisements about Red Bull and how it also sharpened your mind, she just needed an extra boost of energy for what she was about to do.

She sat on the couch, sipping the Red Bull, and going over what she would say to Birkhoff when he got there. Imogen had made her decision during the time that Amanda had locked her in the glass box; she just prayed that it was the right decision for both her and Birkhoff.

The problem was, though she knew what her decision was, she had absolutely no idea how to tell Birkhoff. She was shaking again; the agonizing wait for Birkhoff to return to his office was taking its toll. Thankfully, it was having no effect on her decision; when she made her mind up, that was that.

About thirty minutes later, long after Imogen had consumed the entire can of Red Bull, Birkhoff walked down the steps and entered his office. He paused at the bottom of the stairs, caught off guard by Imogen's presence.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You were, sorry you are, trembling. Did Amanda scare you that much?"

"No," Imogen replied, not looking at Birkhoff. "I stopped trembling because of that awhile ago."

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting down next to her.

"It's nothing," she said.

"Now I know that's not true," he said, reaching out to grasp one of her hands. "You can tell me anything, Imogen. I'm not going to think any less of you. I want to help you."

"It's about the night we kissed," she said. "I've been thinking about it for quite some time now, and I've considered the pros and cons."

"I see," Birkhoff said.

He forced Imogen to look at him before continuing, "Whatever decision you have made I will support. But I want you to know that you can trust me. I would never ever do something to intentionally hurt you. Like I said to you before, I'm a nerd. "

"But can you keep this a secret if your life is threatened?" she asked.

"Of course I can," he replied. "I own this place; they will never even catch a whiff of it, if that is what you have decided. And when you graduate to agent, I can monitor your apartment to make sure that everything is safe for you. I'm a computer genius; this is what I do for a living. Well, it's really the opposite; I've never protected a Division agent from Division. But I can do it; you know how good I am."

"I've made up my mind," she said, looking at him straight in the eye.

"What is it?" he said, nervousness getting to him.

"You don't need to be scared B," she said, a small smile breaking out on her face. "But I want you to know a few things first. I'm not perfect; I have a past. I'm going to have some good days and some bad days. I am okay with my faults; I learnt that I have to live with them and that they are what make me human. I can't force you to put up with me through everything, but I will say this. If you are ever going to leave, and you walk out on me, you only have that once chance. I won't be handing out chances left, right, and center. I will only go through it once, and if something happens…I won't be able to do it again."

"I'm a nerd," was all that Birkhoff said to Imogen, before putting his hands on either side of her face and bringing her in for a soft kiss.

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><p><strong>Fangirly moment! :D Please review!<strong>


	18. CrushCrushCrush

**A/N: I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter! I was going to wait until morning (it's 1am), but I just had to post this now. As always, please leave a review, I love hearing from you! I am going to try to have another update up quickly; I am working my butt off for you guys!**

"You are not going to win against me B, you shouldn't even try," Imogen said, grabbing a controller.

"Seriously? You are the one who cannot win," Birkhoff protested.

"I won the last time!" she said, laughing.

"The last time we played you cheated," he replied.

"You enjoyed it," she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Don't stick your tongue out at me Immy," he said, nudging her.

"What are you going to do about it?" she taunted, smiling.

"Oh you asked for it," Birkhoff said, dropping his controller.

Birkhoff grabbed her wrists and tried to pin her down onto the couch. However, he seemed to forget that she was a recruit for the moment, and she flipped the two of them so that she was the one in control.

"You forgetting something B?" she smirked.

"Of course not," he replied. "I always know exactly what I'm doing…babe."

Just then Birkhoff heard someone calling his name.

"Shit," he said, getting the two of them off the couch. "You better hide."

"Where?" she whispered.

"I don't know, just hide somewhere! I'll try to stall them for a few minutes, just find cover and stay quiet!" he said.

Birkhoff left Imogen's sight to stall whoever it was who was calling him. Imogen looked around the room, but then she realized that she only had one option. She had to hide underneath the couch. She lay on the floor, face down, and then shifted herself so that was she completely under the couch and not visible to anyone. She then flipped herself over so that she was lying on her back. She closed her eyes and stayed completely still.

Imogen heard two sets of footsteps coming back into the room.

"So what exactly are you talking about?" Birkhoff asked.

"There is a man who is going to be in Division today. There has been a data breach with the black boxes," the other man said, Imogen recognizing Percy's voice.

Imogen barely held in a cough, and then she heard Percy start talking again.

"You are going to work with this man, and fix the data breach," Percy finished.

"Alright, I'm on it. Anything else?" Birkhoff said.

"No," Percy said, the sound of his steps retreating.

Imogen didn't move from her position underneath the couch; she couldn't trust that Percy had actually left Birkhoff's office. But then she felt someone reach out to her left hand, grabbing onto her, and pulling her out from underneath the couch.

"Was this really the only place that you could think of Immy?" Birkhoff asked, looking down at her.

"It's the only place that I could get to in time," she replied, opening her eyes and sitting up. "I heard what Percy said."

"I know," he said.

"What are black boxes?" she asked, looking at Birkhoff straight in the eyes.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it," he said, looking away from her.

"So?" she said. "Don't you trust me?"

"I do, but…it'll just put you in danger," he said, running a hand through his hair.

"Isn't what we're doing putting our lives in danger already?" she said, abruptly standing up. "Birkhoff, I don't know if you have forgotten or not but we are risking our lives to be together! Are you regretting that decision, because I can walk out of here right now you know, I don't have to stay."

Birkhoff just looked at Imogen for a moment, looking like he was about to say something; but he stayed silent.

"Fine," she said angrily. "You deal with this guy that Percy mentioned. Find me when you're ready to step up, alright?"

Imogen shook her head at him, turned around, and then left Birkhoff's office. She went straight back to her room to get her water bottle for training, but as soon as she shut the door behind her, a few tears escaped her eyes. As much as she didn't want to think it about Birkhoff; she really was beginning to believe that he was a coward. He started something with her, persuaded her to trust him even, but then he seemed to get cold feet.

_What if he's going to stop talking to me, _she asked herself. _I'll be alone again._

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><p><em>A young woman walked out of an airport with only a backpack on her back and nothing else. She walked down the street, passing shop after shop. She didn't know where she was headed, but she knew that she was just going to keep walking around before she figured that out. The woman pretended to look at the various items that the vendors were selling for a few reasons. The first reason was to blend into the crowd and as a result not drawing any unnecessary attention to herself. The second; she wanted to keep her mind off of the fact that she was completely alone.<em>

_Imogen, the woman, walked by a jewelry stand, barely looking at the merchandise. But just as she was almost past the stand there was a glint in the corner of her eye. Imogen turned to look at it more closely and she saw that the object that shone was a charm. More specifically, it was a flower, a daisy, with only one petal._

"_It's alone too," she whispered to herself so that no one else could hear her._

_She picked up the charm to look at it more closely. It looked to be made out of sterling silver, except for the lone petal which was made out of white gold._

"_Do you like it?" a lady asked, coming into Imogen's line of vision from behind the stall._

"_Yea," Imogen replied. "I would like to buy it, if that's alright?"_

"_Sure," the lady said._

_Imogen handed over a couple bills, letting the lady keep the small bit of change. As she walked away from the stand Imogen attached the charm to her necklace. It was the first one that she had purchased on her own. The rest were purchased by either her mother or her father; both of whom were no longer around._

_She had many charms; each with its own unique memory. The mockingbird was her very first one, given to her by her father when she overheard her parents arguing one day. Her mother had given her a heart, and gave her specific instructions about how to handle it; to give it away when she was in love with someone. The other charms that Imogen had were a treasure chest, a teardrop, and a computer. _

"_I have to do this on my own now," she muttered as she continued to walk down the streets._

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><p>Imogen shook her head to snap herself out of the trip down memory lane, grabbed her water bottle and then left her room. She walked quickly over to the training area and hopped up on one of the treadmills. All Imogen wanted to do was keep running as long as she could. Her mind told her that Birkhoff would be conducting business with some sort of guy pretty soon; she didn't want to think about what would come after that.<p>

After about half an hour of training and sweating her ass off, Imogen noticed an older man come out of the elevator. He wore glasses, he was nearly bald, and also wore a trench coat.

_That's got to be the man who Birkhoff was supposed to work with_, she thought.

Imogen kept on running on the treadmill, but she kept her eyes on that man, though she never turned her head. Once that man was taken out of the training room, she stopped the treadmill. If Birkhoff wasn't going to tell her what was going on, then she would find out herself.

She walked as fast as she possibly could through the halls towards Birkhoff's office. If she walked fast enough, she would be able to reach it before that unknown man and Birkhoff did. If they weren't already there that was. She reached the office and carefully checked it out before entering it in case she failed and they were already inside. Lucky for her, no one was in the office so she quickly slipped inside. This time she didn't want to hide under the couch, so she examined other possible places. Imogen had a stroke of luck yet again and she hid behind some equipment that Birkhoff had in the corner. She wasn't sure exactly what the equipment was, but it provided her with adequate cover so she wasn't going to question it.

Imogen was only behind the equipment for ten minutes before more people came in.

"Just engineer?" the first man asked.

It was Birkhoff, Imogen realized, so the next man to speak was going to be the engineer.

"It's too cold in here," the second man stated. "You're hoarding gear, not sides of beef."

"Yeah that's how I roll. D-don't touch that," Birkhoff said, stuttering a little near the end. "Look, what's this about? Percy told me I was going to fix a data breach?"

Birkhoff paused for a moment waiting for the man to answer, but when he didn't Birkhoff continued. "Ok, look, if you won't tell me your name, at least tell me what you are engineer of."

"Apparently your future," the 'engineer' replied.

Another moment passed with neither Birkhoff nor the Engineer saying a word.

"Gentlemen," a third man, Percy, said. "I brought you here because I was promise a secure, self contained storage system, and now I find there's a hole in Pandora's Box."

"First off, it ain't Pandora's Box. It's mine," the engineer said, sounding a little agitated. "Second, my system is flawless, and my encryption is exquisitely impervious. The only failure is the human element, those guardians, which you brought into the mi—"

"The guardians are fine," Percy interrupted. "The breach was caused by the update drives which, last time I checked, were part of your system."

"Uh, why do you even need that?" Birkhoff asked. "This thing's got onboard wireless."

"Exactly," Percy said, looking at the Engineer. "See, Birkhoff here is a signals expert. Now, I want the two of you to take this out of the equation and update the black boxes wirelessly without hurting the encryption."

"Great, love a challenge," the Engineer muttered.

"I've never even seen one of these before," Birkhoff said, sounding nervous. "What clearance level is this?"

"My level," Percy answered tersely. "Today's the day you reach your full potential, Birkhoff. Don't let me down."

Imogen heard Percy's footsteps leave Birkhoff's office, though she didn't budge from her hiding place.

"Amazing," the Engineer said exasperatedly. "You already look lost."

The next hour or so passed in complete silence, save from the tapping of what Imogen assumed was Birkhoff on his computer.

"What a mess," the Engineer said.

"It's a sign of genius," Birkhoff said, only a hint of frustration evident in his voice.

"Not this," the Engineer clarified. "This."

Imogen could only assume that the Engineer motioned to something after that.

"I've got a lot on my mind," Birkhoff said. "It's not every day that Lord Sauron steps down from Mount Doom and asks you to forge the One Ring."

Imogen closed her eyes and concentrated on not crying out; a tear started to trace its way down her cheek. She didn't know for sure, but it sounded like Birkhoff was really stressed out about what happened earlier.

"Damn it," Birkhoff cursed. "There's no way this codec is ever going to fit the satellite bandwidth. Quantum key distribution is too sophisticated. You sure you wrote this?"

"Are you sure you're not someone else?" the Engineer questioned. "Percy says he plucked you from obscurity, that you're a diamond in the rough."

"Well, that's very cute, but I am not a spice girl, and I was never, _ever _obscure," Birkhoff snapped. "I was elusive, and a little dangerous. I was a legend."

"Ahhh, a, uh…. ShadowWalker," the Engineer remarked. "Caused a little craziness at the Pentagon back in the day…"

Imogen's eyes snapped open once again. Birkhoff was ShadowWalker? She knew that he was a good hacker, but not that good. She knew that internet handle; one of the few that she was familiar with. She had studied his work after her father died for extra practice.

"I was making a statement," Birkhoff interrupted.

"But Sauron captured you, and now what?" the Engineer persisted. "Well, are you still a legend?"

Yet again they fell silent, up until Imogen heard them say something about video games. They started playing, and she could hear the various noises and other sounds that were coming from the game. What astonished her was that at the end of it, Birkhoff lost.

"How is that even possible?" he asked, sounding frustrated.

"Killer instinct; you can't survive without it in this place," the Engineer explained. "Present the problem again, quickly."

"Uh, I—I got rid of the flash drive, but your encryption is too robust for the satellite bandwidth," Birkhoff said, stuttering again.

"Why?" the Engineer questioned.

"I don't know," Birkhoff said, walking back and forth. "This thing's got a White-Fi emitter; isn't even in the real world yet."

Birkhoff paused for a moment, and Imogen could just hear him thinking.

"But it is an emitted," Birkhoff started. "So that means it's designed to broadcast, so if I shut off that functionality during download… YES! Ha ha ha ha!"

"It frees the mind," the Engineer said.

Imogen tuned out the next part of the conversation that was going on; she was just happy that Birkhoff figured out the problem. As much as he was aggravating her at that time, she didn't want him to fail and get in trouble with Percy. She rested her eyes, though she didn't dare fall asleep.

"Problem solved?"

_Percy's back_, Imogen thought.

"I hope so," he continued. "I need one thing to work out today."

"Excellent," the Engineer said.

"Yeah. Uh, gangbusters," Birkhoff said.

Imogen wasn't sure what he meant by that…

"You satisfied?" Percy asked.

"Yeah," the Engineer answered. "The kid was his own worst enemy, but he gets it."

Imogen was feeling confident, so she poked her head out just enough to see what was going on. All three of the men were turned towards the computers and away from her hiding place. No one else could see her; she had chosen well.

"Have you given him all the encryptions?" Percy asked.

"He knows them better than me," the Engineer said, sounding proud.

"Good. First box that I want to test is in London," Percy said. "Let's uplink from Operations."

"That should really be easy," the Engineer said. "Because this kid is just—"

Imogen saw Percy grab the Engineer around the neck…and break it, killing him instantly. Her hands flew up to her mouth, trying to prevent a scream. Unfortunately, Birkhoff wasn't so lucky.

"Oh, my god. Oh, my god, what did y—what did you do?" he said, sounding really distressed.

Imogen hid herself once again, in too much shock to trust herself. The next thing Imogen heard was once again Percy's voice.

"Now go," he said. "Be brilliant."

Imogen heard more footsteps, and Birkhoff walked straight past her hiding place. She thought for a moment that he looked back and saw her, but she wasn't too sure. Imogen just stayed in her hiding place for another hour or so while Percy did whatever he needed to do to clean up the body…and then the first chance she had to escape unseen; she took it.

Imogen ran down the halls as fast as possible once she was away from Birkhoff's office; once again traveling to her room… her safety zone. She ripped open the door and slammed it once she was inside.

"I'm sorry," a voice said.

Imogen looked up and there, sitting on her bed, was Birkhoff.

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><p><strong>Dun dun dun dunnnnnn, cliffhanger! Leave a review please! :P<strong>


	19. They

**A/N: Yay! Another update! I've worked really hard to bring you this, so please leave a review once you're done reading! I would also like to remind everyone that the poll is still up on my profile, please go over there and leave your vote! As well, the song list for all my chapters is still on my profile, so check that out if you want Enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Nikita  
><strong>

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><p>"What do you want Birkhoff?" she asked angrily.<p>

"I want to talk to you," he replied, getting up from the bed.

"About what?" she demanded, moving away from him. "Are you going to explain why you're abandoning me?"

"I'm not abandoning you," he protested.

"Then what are you doing?" she said. "You're conforming to what they want you to do. You're being a coward, Birkhoff. It's making me feel like I'm nothing, do you even understand that?"

Birkhoff opened his mouth, but before he could answer, Imogen started back up again.

"No Birkhoff, you don't understand. You will never understand what it is like, because you just go along with what other people say," she said.

"Let me explain," he started, reaching for her hand.

"No, stop explaining," she said, ripping her hand away. "You're hurting me with this, Birkhoff… I don't think that it's worth it. Why did you get cold feet? Because I'm not good enough?"

"Stop Imogen, just stop," he said, holding her arms so she couldn't leave. "I'm just trying to protect you from what Percy is capable of. I know that you saw Imogen, and I'm sorry for that."

"But what if I don't want protection?" she said. "I made my decision Birkhoff, and you were the one who encouraged it. You promised me Birkhoff, and now you're breaking that promise."

"I thought that we could do this," he said, letting go of her. "But after what happened today… I don't want that to happen again, and if Percy ever finds out… Well, it's going to be your neck snapped in front of me, and I don't think that I can live with that."

"Maybe I'm okay with that," she said. "I thought about it before, and I don't want to live like this in Division; with nothing and no one. At least, if I'm with you, then I feel like I'm wanted… I feel safe Birkhoff, and happy. I'm willing to risk it. Are you?"

Imogen didn't wait for an answer from Birkhoff, she just looked at him and then she left her room.

* * *

><p>"Hey Imogen," said a voice behind her.<p>

She turned around from the dummy to see who was talking to her.

"Did you miss me?" Thom asked.

"Of course," she said, smirking. "What have you been up to?"

"Just hanging out really," he responded.

"So why are you here now? Do you have a mission or something?" she asked.

"Or something," he said, adjusting the height of the dummy. "They have me on support for a mission. Now, trying hitting that; it's a bit higher than normal, but you need to get used to all sorts of heights."

"I guess you can't talk about it?" she said, taking a swing at the dummy.

Thom corrected her punch before saying, "Right in one Imogen. It's classified I'm afraid. I would tell you…"

"If you could, I get it. Don't worry about it Thom, its fine," she said.

"If you're sure," he said reluctantly. "I've got to go now, but keep practicing that okay?"

"I will," she said, and just as she noticed Birkhoff walking past them and into Operations… "I promise."

Thom walked away from her and also headed into Operations, while she turned back to the dummy.

Imogen spent the next couple hours really beating on the dummy; taking her frustrations out on it. She had a weird feeling in her stomach; like something was telling her that she was being too hard on Birkhoff. No one had tried to protect her since her parents, so shouldn't she be happy that someone cared enough to do that?

It was weird, she really didn't want to be mad at him… and she did think that something was off about this whole thing. Maybe she should go and talk to him again; that might make things a little better.

She gathered her things and then dropped them off in her room. Imogen decided not to go to his office; going there too often in a short space of time would raise even more alarms. They would be more likely to catch her that way… So Imogen's next best option was to go to the computer lab.

No one was in there when Imogen arrived; she figured that Birkhoff was either back in his office, or in Operations. She knew that Birkhoff did not live at Division; but there was not enough time for him to have left. Imogen sat down at one of the computers and just started randomly typing. She wanted to keep her mind off of Birkhoff, but she was failing miserably.

"Come on," she muttered. "Focus!"

"Are you okay?" someone asked.

"I'm fine," she snapped, after turning around to see who it was.

"You don't look fine," Alex said.

"I'm just tired, that's all," she replied.

"Why don't you get some sleep then?" Alex asked.

"I can't sleep right now," she said. "I have too much to do."

"Leave it until tomorrow," Alex encouraged. "You won't do anyone any good if you burn yourself out now."

"I told you, I can't go to sleep," she protested. "I have to finish this now."

"Just go," Alex said. "I will finish this for you; you need some rest."

Imogen just dropped the argument; she was tired but she just could not keep on arguing with Alex, although she did not plan on going to bed or even back to her room. It had been a few hours since she had arrived at the computer lab, so she figured that she should go take a shower or go back to the training room… delaying the time until she would have to go to bed. Imogen knew that once she was lying in her Division recruit bed, staring up at the ceiling, that her thoughts would be invaded by Birkhoff.

Once she returned to the training room she set up a heavy bag since no one else was around, and just pummeled it as hard as she could. Imogen was frustrated beyond belief, and she was trying to at least mask her sadness by that so that no one would notice. If she could not hide everything, then at least she could direct what they saw.

She wasn't exactly sure how long she was there for, but finally Imogen decided that she could not delay it any longer and made her way back to her room, stopping off at the showers before she got there.

"I am a coward," Birkhoff said, leaning against one of the stalls.

"Yea, you are," she agreed.

"I know that I do what they say all the time; I know that I turn a blind eye and pretend not to notice," he continued

"I know," she said, looking away.

"I want to change," he said. "I really do."

"It doesn't seem like it," she said, turning back to him.

"Well I do," he persisted.

"You'll have to prove it to me," she countered.

"Believe me, I am going to try," he said. "But I am going to need your help, I can't do this alone."

"I don't know if I can trust you," she said.

"I know that I hurt you," he replied. "I didn't plan on that happening… It just did."

"But then, how can you guarantee that it won't happen again?" she said, trying not to cry. "How can I put my faith in you once again, when I had trouble the first time?"

"I am going to make no promises this time," he admitted. "It's not going to be smooth sailing, but maybe, just maybe, we can find a way to make this work."

"I don't know…" she said, sounding really unsure about what he was suggesting."

"I will make you a deal," he said.

"What kind of deal?" Imogen asked.

"You will teach me how to not be a coward," he answered. "We won't plan on anything else; we'll just start with that."

"What do I get out of that though?" she asked.

"How about… I will teach you how to beat me at Mortal Kombat," he said.

"I think that I can deal with that," she responded, barely holding back a laugh.

"Okay then," he said. "Go get some sleep; I will see you in the morning."

"I will," she said softly. "Goodnight Birkhoff."

"Goodnight Imm… Imogen," he said, stopping himself from saying her nickname.

Birkhoff walked out of the room after that, not even looking back at her. Imogen sighed, but she managed to pull through a shower and went to bed with a small smile on her face. Even though things weren't perfect between her and Birkhoff, at least he wasn't going to be abandoning her just like that. Maybe this time she had someone that she would be able to count on.

* * *

><p>The next morning Imogen was up a little earlier than normal, even with her lack of sleep. She raced to get dressed and down to breakfast even though she didn't have to.<p>

"Are you feeling better this morning?" Alex asked. "You seem to be up early."

"Yea, I'm feeling really good," she replied. "I was going to go to the computer lab after breakfast, we don't have anything right away do we?"

"We do actually," Alex said. "But since you're here early you could probably get some time in."

"I'm going to try I think," Imogen responded, grabbing an apple.

"Hey," Alex said, just as Imogen was leaving. "Do you want to spar after our lesson? I could really use a partner."

"Sure," Imogen agreed. "I'll see you later then."

"Bye," Alex said just as Imogen left the dining hall.

Imogen decided that she would focus more on her training than Birkhoff. They would stay friends, and she would work with him on what they agreed, but she wouldn't let everything revolve around him. She was going to prepare herself for the possible event that things wouldn't progress any further, and that she would have no more… intimate contact, for lack of a better word, with him. She would probably still harbor feelings for him for quite some time, but Imogen fully believed that she would be able to handle that. She would have to, if it was a choice between staying just friends with him, or losing him completely.

As Imogen entered the computer lab, Birkhoff was leaving it.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi," she responded.

"Are you going to get some work done?" he asked.

"Well, I have a class in a little bit," she said. "But I'm certainly going to try."

"Try exercise number fifty four," he hinted. "I think that you will find it very useful."

"I will be sure to check it out," she said, catching onto his hint.

The two of them parted ways, and Imogen sat down at a computer. She searched the files on the computer and found one marked 'Exercise Fifty Four', and then she double clicked on it. She almost laughed out loud when she saw the title of the exercise. It was simply titled "How to Win at Mortal Kombat 101".

Imogen shook her head and broke out in silent laughter. It was such a Birkhoff thing to do. But since she really didn't have any more work to do, Imogen decided that she would give the exercise a shot. She knew that Birkhoff would still believe that she wouldn't ever be able to beat him, but she was determined to surprise him. If he was going to quit being a coward… then she was going to win Mortal Kombat; and she would not rest until she managed it.

* * *

><p><strong>Leave a review please!<strong>


	20. Deceiver of Fools

**A/N: You are some very lucky readers! Thank you to the people who have been reviewing, I love you guys! The feedback has been great. As always, I would love it if everyone could leave a review, even if it's short, after they are finished reading. Enjoy the chapter!**

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><p>Imogen sat down onto a bench in the training area after a brief, but intense sparring session with Alex. She had been called away, with them saying something about a mission for her. Imogen had no clue on what it could be, but her gut was telling her that this mission, whatever it was, was going to be a big one. This led Imogen to believe that Alex would be graduating if she completed the mission.<p>

"She's going to kill someone," Imogen muttered.

"How'd you know?" someone asked.

Imogen turned around and saw Thom standing behind her.

"I take it this is the mission you are doing support for?" she said.

"Yea," he replied. "But how do you know about what this entails?"

"It's just a hunch that I have," she said, standing up.

"That hunch of yours is going to get you in trouble some day," he said, following her out of the training room.

Once the two of them were out of the training room and were completely alone, Imogen whipped around to look at him.

"Are you trying to threaten me?" she asked.

"No, no I'm not," he said, reaching out to her. "I'm just trying to warn you. Jaden is already going after Alex, you need to be careful."

"I'm always careful," she said confidently.

"I'm serious Imogen," he said. "You need to lay low. Don't do anything out of the ordinary. Just go to your classes, to training, and then just stay in your room."

"Why can't I do anything else?" she said. "I'm careful Thom, and Jaden doesn't scare me."

"Well does Percy?" he demanded.

"No," she snapped. "He doesn't scare me."

"Well he should," Thom said, dragging her down the hallways. "He's going on a mole hunt."

"I'm not the mole," she said, trying to get him to let go.

"It doesn't matter," Thom said. "He will burn anyone if it will further his investigation. He will manipulate you into giving up every single secret."

"I'd like to see him try," she said.

"He will succeed in finding out what you've been doing," Thom said.

"I haven't been doing anything," she said firmly.

"I'm not stupid Imogen, I know that you have been doing something," Thom said. "I don't know what it was, or is, but I just wanted to warn you."

"Fine," she said. "Your concern is appreciated Thom."

Imogen's word was final, because after that she turned around and walked away from him. She wasn't very shaken by what he said, but she was thinking about it. If he knew that something was up, though it could be nothing… then Amanda or Percy would find it so much easier to find out exactly what it was.

She turned the corner and nearly ran into Michael.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Watch it," he replied. "But yes, you can actually. I have a project for you to do over the next few days."

"Yea?" she said. "What is it?"

"We recovered discs and other hard drives from a previous mission," Michael started, putting his hand on her shoulder and steering her down the hallway.

"What about them?" she asked.

"The problem with the discs and hard drives is that they are incredibly damaged," Michael explained.

"So you want me to reconstruct the data from all of these into something that you can use?" she said as they entered a smaller computer lab. "Hold on, why can't Birkhoff do it? And why are we not in the regular lab?"

"Birkhoff is busy right now," Michael answered. "And this task is supposed to be kept quiet, so you aren't going to be in the lab with the other recruits."

"Why are you asking me?" she said. "Why not choose another recruit?"

"Because you're showing the most promise," Michael replied. "Consider it an honour. If you keep doing as well as you have, then you might graduate faster."

"Really?" she asked.

"Really," Michael replied. "Now get to work."

Once Imogen was left alone in the small little lab, she sat down at one of the computers and started the task. She had to run different reconstruction tests and analyses, but she wasn't having a whole lot of luck. She had tried nearly every single test in the book, but nothing was yielding a result.

"No wonder they couldn't figure this out," she muttered. "But I have to get this… no matter what."

A couple hours later Imogen noticed that there was a small bed in the corner, and then she put two and two together. They expected her to work at this until she got it. Imogen would bet her life that they had cameras on the outside of the room to alert them when she left. So if she didn't go straight to them with her findings... she would be in trouble. Shaking her head, Imogen kept working on it. She was beginning to feel like a prisoner at this rate; cooped up in a room for an extended period of time.

* * *

><p>"Ok everybody out! Come on let's go! Out, out, out, out, out!" Birkhoff said loudly, arriving in Operations; Michael trailing behind him.<p>

"Where's the fire Birkhoff?" Michael asked.

"I can't _believe_ it got past me," Birkhoff said, sounding frustrated. "I can't BELIEVE I didn't see it."

"See what?" Michael asked.

"What's the emergency?" Percy asked, entering the room.

Birkhoff closed the door behind him and then cleared his throat.

"We have a breach," Birkhoff stated. "Tiny, but huge."

"Do tell," Percy said, prompting Birkhoff to keep talking.

"Well, I was running a system diagnostic, rerouting network traffic," Birkhoff explained. "I was using a new technique that I picked up from, uh, from the Engineer. Actually the truth is, uh, if I hadn't met him… I don't know if I ever would have spotted it."

"Spotted what?" Percy asked sternly, sounding annoyed.

"A shell program," Birkhoff confessed. "Planted behind the firewall; a hidden backdoor that leads from the Division subnet, out into the real world."

"Wait someone hacked into our server? I thought that was impossible," Michael said.

"No, it-it-it is impossible… Look," Birkhoff said reaching to the computer keyboard. "It's like a private chat room. Ok, it's two was and none of the chats are logged, so there's no way to tell how much it's been used or what's been said."

* * *

><p>Imogen ran more tests on the discs and hard drives, finally getting some success. A few minutes later however, and a box appeared on her screen.<p>

"Nikita? Are u there?" was what the box read.

Imogen decided not to answer that; she valued her life too much. Not that she could anyways, there was no place that she could respond. She was unsure as to what was going on. Was it a malfunction or a warning from someone? She knew that Birkhoff worked with computers… was he under the impression that she was the mole?

"At Zoman Estate. Contact Later."

Imogen leaned closer to the screen to see if there was going to be a response. But shortly after that last message arrived, the box disappeared. She was certain that it was a malfunction, but now she had some information about what mission was going down. Any information that she could gather would be essential in her survival here.

Making sure that she would remember what she had learned, Imogen finished her last test on the equipment that she had been given. A reconstruction had started, and the screen indicated that the time remaining was a couple hours. So now all she had to do was wait until it finished. While she was waiting, Imogen decided to rest her eyes and think about nothing at all.

She had been sitting there for two hours when the box reappeared on her screen.

"Where r u?"

Imogen's eyes focused on the message. That mission that Alex and Thom were on was supposed to be going on right now; she assumed that it was the mission at the Zoman Estate. Was she being witness to a conversation between Nikita and the mole? She was watching as closely as she possibly could, but there no message appeared and the box disappeared once again. Imogen thought for a moment, btu then she realized what was going on.

Thom had said that Percy was on a mole hunt; this chat room must have been how the mole was communicating with Nikita.

"Birkhoff must have discovered it," she muttered.

She knew that only he could have done a search that would have revealed this chat room. Why she was witnessing these messages? Imogen wasn't sure exactly, but she was going to keep this to herself until she could figure things out.

The reconstruction was taking longer than expected, so Imogen decided that she would work on learning Mortal Kombat while she was waiting. She had been working on that for four more hours when the reconstruction was finally finished. Imogen transferred everything over to another hard drive, but not before taking a peek at the information. There wasn't much on there; obviously Division had no idea what they were searching for. If there was something of value, it probably got lost when the stuff was damaged.

Imogen picked up the new hard drive and exited the room; heading on over to Operations. She passed Medical on her way there, and he called her in.

"Are you finished?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered, looking at his injury.

"I got shot," he said, answering her unasked question. "You can leave that hard drive with me; I'll take care of it."

"Alright," she said, and then handed it to him.

She left Medical after that and decided that she would go back to her room. Imogen was walking down one of the back hallways, when she saw something weird at the end. Thom was pointing a gun at Alex.

"Wow," she whispered.

Imogen quickly hide in an alcove making sure that the shadows would hide her presence from not only Thom and Alex, but anyone who passed her by.

"Thom," she heard Alex say. "I can explain."

"It's ok, I worked it out," he answered. "I just don't believe it."

"Oh good," Alex said. "I was just down here to—"

"Don't," Thom interrupted. "Don't."

"I wanted to tell you," Alex said, sounding a little bit stressed. "Someday… I was hoping to."

"Shut up," Thom hissed. "Turn around… I said turn around!"

Imogen wasn't sure what was going on, but she didn't want to stay to witness anything, even if it was just hearing what was happening. She didn't escape in time however, as she heard the two of them start fighting and a few minutes later, she heard the bang of a gun going off. Someone was dead, and judging by the cries, that someone was Thom.

Taking her chance, Imogen slipped out of her hiding place and raced away from the scene. She didn't want to be around to find out what happened. Imogen was smart enough to think about the situation though; she knew that Alex was going to frame Thom as the mole. The question was whether or not she would reveal Alex's lie?

Imogen was running around the hallways, not really understanding where she was going or what she was going to do once she got there. But she finally found herself someplace familiar; Birkhoff's office. She didn't have any luck, Birkhoff wasn't in his office. She sat down onto the couch and waited, putting her hand in her trembling hands. What had gone on tonight? Something had to have happened during the mission, but what exactly was it?

"Imogen?" someone asked half an hour later.

She looked up to see Birkhoff standing beside the couch.

"What happened on the mission?" she asked. "I was working on an assignment for Michael, but then I heard a big commotion. Michael was in Medical as well!"

"I'll talk to you about it later, we need to get you back to your room," he said, pulling her to her feet.

"Why?" she asked as he led her out of the room.

"Because Division is being searched top to bottom. If you were found around here… I don't want to think about it, just get back to your room," he said, letting her go once they were a safe distance from his office.

"Birkhoff, seriously what happened?" she asked again. "I want to know what's going on—"

Birkhoff silenced her by placing his lips on hers. It was only for a brief moment, but it achieved his goal.

"Just trust me," he whispered, and left her in the hall.

Imogen stood there, breathless, for a moment and then made her way back to her room.

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><p><strong>I guess their plan of just being friends for now isn't working? Or is it? Review to find out soon!<strong>


	21. Storm

**A/N: You guys are killing me here! I love that people are reviewing the story, it makes me want to update even faster! Just think, if even more of you review, I will keep up this reviewing everyday thing going on for awhile longer. Thankfully tonight I'm not awake as late; that part of updating has really been exhausting, and I just hope that everyone appreciates my efforts! Like always, leave a review when you're done reading! And yes, this is another actual episode chapter. I should mention the song that I used: Storm by Lifehouse. You should play it on Youtube while you read.**

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><p>"What exactly was it that you were putting in?" Imogen asked.<p>

"It was an agent tracking device," Birkhoff answered.

"Alright," she said. "So what exactly does it do?"

"Tracks all of our agents through a satellite," he said.

"How powerful is it?" she asked.

"Extremely," he replied. "It can pick up a signal basically anywhere in the world."

"I see," she said. "What is the difference between that and my recruit tracker?"

"Now that would be telling," Birkhoff smirked. "Are you trying to pump me for information?"

"Of course," she said, smiling back at him. "But if you aren't going to say anything else, then I have to go. I will see you tomorrow?"

"I should hope so," he smiled.

Imogen stood up and hugged Birkhoff before she left his office. So much had happened over the past couple of days, and not just with their relationship. The two of them had agreed to take it slow and just be friends, but then the night that Thom died, Birkhoff had kissed her before ushering her off to her room. Imogen still had strong feelings for him, but she really didn't know how he felt about her. Did he like her for real?

But she had more pressing things on her mind at the moment. Alex had graduated after killing Thom, and saying that he was the mole. Imogen knew that Birkhoff had fitted her with an agent tracking device at the base of her neck. Sometime in the future, whether it was a couple days away, a week or a month, she knew that she would be in the middle of a graduation mission. If Imogen was successful, that would be when she would be fitted with her own tracker. Since she wanted to plan ahead, Imogen had to find out how to disable it, at least for a little while, until she could get it completely removed.

She had to make her escape at some point, and what better time than after she graduated? Once she did, Imogen would be able to get into touch with her contacts again, and resume her personal mission; her vendetta. That fact, that she had to get out, was another reason that she was happy that she and Birkhoff had decided to just stay friends. If they were involved… if she fell for him, Imogen wasn't sure if she would have the guts to leave.

Imogen sat down onto her bed, and stared at the ceiling. She counted the grooves on it, trying to make herself tired enough to fell asleep. Things were getting so much more complicated now; she had to keep her confidence. She was staring at that ceiling for about an hour when she finally put her head down onto her pillow and immediately fell asleep.

* * *

><p>The next day, Imogen briefly saw Birkhoff in the computer lab right after lunch.<p>

"I can't stay very long," he explained.

"Why?" she asked.

"I have to do some stuff, but I will be back around seven or so okay?" he said.

"Alright," she said.

Imogen turned back to her work once Birkhoff had left. She was working on a way to turn off a tracking device; she disguised it as a project that was planting such a device on someone. Even though no one was watching her, she couldn't be too careful.

"If I just… no, that won't work," she muttered to herself.

_How can I shut this off?_ She asked herself.

She kept clicking on random things on the computer; she was starting to get really frustrated. It was beginning to look like she would have to hack something in order to disable the tracker. Imogen sucked in her breath as the reality hit her like a brick. She was going to have to hack Birkhoff's laptop computer when she had her tracker in order to turn it off. Chances were he had the highest security possible on his laptop, so she would have to go into hacking overdrive.

"I'll just practice over and over again," she whispered. "Let's do this."

Imogen turned around her focus from finding a way to shut off a tracking device to hacking into the security systems that had the absolute best security. She knew that Birkhoff had created these, so if she was able to refresh her memory on his style, then she would be better equipped to hack into his laptop. She practiced for hours, and when it was finally five to seven, she got up and left the computer lab to head on over to Birkhoff's office. He was supposed to give her another lesson on Mortal Kombat, as per their agreement.

When she got to his office however, Birkhoff was nowhere to be found. Imogen wasn't bothered much; he had said that there were no guarantees of him being there at exactly seven.

* * *

><p><em>About an hour after Imogen arrived in Birkhoff's office…<em>

"Okay, you're on," Nikita said. 'Let's see if you can't put the fear of God into him."

"From what you're told me, the guy thinks he is God," Ryan replied. "I'll do my best."

Ryan walked out of that small office, into the hallway, and then into a large conference where none other than Birkhoff was sitting at one of the chairs, looking quite bored.

Ryan cleared his throat, threw a file folder onto the table and then started to speak. "What do you know about a hacker, went by the handle Shadow Walker. Guy had his heyday in the nineties. He was brilliant, security hacks… He was so good; he managed to pull off a cyber intrusion into the Pentagon back in '93."

"What's a cyber intrusion?" Birkhoff asked. "Sounds vaguely sexual."

"Shadow Walker was also the mastermind of several international e-crimes. I'm sure you're familiar with them," Ryan said. "Here's the bottom line: the CIA has evidence linking you to the Shadow Walker identity."

"A: that's impossible, because I'm not Shadow Walker," Birkhoff lied. "And B: I'm dying of thirst, and as part of my civil liberties, I demand an energy beverage; whatever has the most taurine."

"Heh heh heh. You want to get that to go?" Ryan asked, laughing at Birkhoff. " 'Cause you're headed to a Bangkok prison after we extradite you."

Birkhoff let out a short, high pitched type of laugh.

"Ah, mini Ethan Hunt? You need to worry about where you're headed, because you have no idea who you're dealing with," Birkhoff said, thinking of the power that rested behind him; the people that would tear Ryan apart. "And not only have I always wanted to say that; it's true."

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><p>Imogen was pacing back and forth in Birkhoff's office. It was now nearing nine o'clock and he still wasn't there. Something had to have happened to him… but she had no idea on what it could have been. Her mind running wild, Imogen booted up Birkhoff's desktop computer. She was going to get into his system to see if she could find his schedule. She doubted that he had written anything on it; but at least it would give her something to do while she waited.<p>

It took her a little while to get into the system, but she finally managed it and began her search for anything of interest; disregarding files that she had already heard of. Birkhoff had all sorts of plans on his computer for security systems, network diagnostics, basically anything and everything to do with computers.

After running a rarely used scan on his computer, Imogen came across a hidden file on Birkhoff's computer. She double clicked on it, but it only contained one little, but huge, piece of information inside it.

"_Birthday: February 14__th__, 1987."_

"That's my birthday," Imogen whispered, a tear forming in her eye.

Just reading that little sentence made her miss him and be even more worried about his whereabouts. He had cared enough to go searching for her birth date; even though he didn't have to and probably had never done that for anyone else, including Michael.

* * *

><p>"Look, you said that you would get his password when he accessed Division's interface to ask for help," Ryan said to Nikita, sounding panicked. "I mean, maybe he can't hack a Blu-Ray player."<p>

"He can hack one in his sleep," Nikita said firmly. "Question isn't if he'll contact Division; it's when."

"Well, he might not have to," Ryan said, looking at his Blackberry. "I just got two e-mails from a superior asking what I know about the renditioning of a Seymour Birkhoff."

"Then we're out of time," Nikita said, rising from her seat and heading to the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ryan asked.

"I was hoping your rendition would be enough to scare him," she stated. "It wasn't."

"If you go in there, they're going to know we're working together," Ryan said, panicking.

"I'm sorry Ryan," Nikita said, opening the door. "But this is not a mission I'm prepared to fail."

Nikita made her way over to the room where Birkhoff was being held and opened the door.

"Hello nerd," she said, Birkhoff scrambling out of his seat.

* * *

><p>"Where is he?" she asked the air, trying not to be too loud.<p>

Imogen was pacing again. She had done all she could with his computer, and now she was once again left with nothing to concentrate on. She was losing her mind with worry; it was like a piece of her was missing when Birkhoff was gone AWOL like this.

"Where?" she asked herself again. "Where is my B?"

She collapsed onto the couch, putting her head in her hands. She was shaking all over; this wasn't like Birkhoff.

* * *

><p>"Let me ask you something Birkhoff," Nikita said. "Don't you think Percy's going to be suspicious that in the last six months, I've targeted you twice? I mean, I'm sure he's already wondering why it took the notorious Shadow Walker so long to find my little shell program."<p>

"Percy trusts me," Birkhoff said adamantly.

"Yes but, will he trust you when you return with another transmitter implant in your tooth?" she asked, advancing towards him. "Or teeth?"

Nikita paused for a moment and then continued. "You have five minutes to decide. You give me your password, be our little secret. Otherwise, prepare for oral surgery."

* * *

><p>Imogen threw paper after paper into the air, trying to look for anything to distract her from the fact that Birkhoff was still missing. She had never felt like this in a long time; like a huge part of her was missing… She felt broken, and that the only way that everything was going to be okay was if Birkhoff returned to her safe and sound.<p>

She suddenly sat on the ground, out of breath. This was worrying her too much; she had to calm herself down somehow. Imogen grabbed a couple Red Bulls and started drinking can after can, drowning her sorrows and ensuring that she would be awake for whenever Birkhoff returned. Or whenever someone entered his office and discovered her there. At this point, she could really care less.

Just then, a message appeared on the screen of the computer.

"CIA. Trace this IP. Come get me. NOW."

Imogen just knew that it was Birkhoff sending that message; and she knew that it wasn't for her. But what was he doing in the CIA? Had they captured him for something? It was a little comforting to know where he was, but she was still extremely worried about him.

She grabbed a couple of cans of Red Bull, and began to drink all of them. She would wait here until Division rescued him. He was bound to come back eventually…

Imogen then decided to leave his office and go to the training area. After all, he would have to come into Division through that elevator, and even if she could not talk to him in front of everyone, she would at least know that he was alright.

Once she was there, Imogen threw herself into beating on a dummy. It seemed like she was always taking her frustrations or worries out on the training equipment; the wear and tear was starting to show.

* * *

><p>"This is all a misunderstanding," Michael said.<p>

"You vandalized CIA property and assaulted officers of the agency. Those seem like pretty straightforward offences to me," Ryan said seriously.

Suddenly the door opened and a woman walked inside.

"Uncuff them," she demaned.

"Barbara, this man used force to…" Ryan began.

"I've been apprised of all the facts Ryan," she interrupted. "You brought in this man independent of my approval. Now, just because NPR wants to do a piece on you, doesn't mean you're above regulations. We'll continue this discussion back at Langley."

"I tried to tell you," Birkhoff said, walking out of the room behind Michael.

* * *

><p>Imogen was still in the training room with no sign of Birkhoff when one of the monitors made some static noises and then they changed… to a picture, no video, of Nikita's face.<p>

"By now, most of you know who I am. Once upon a time, I was you. But now I'm fighting a war to destroy you," the video said. "With every mission I stop; every agent I neutralize… I grow stronger. It's true you've had your victories; you killed my mole, you had me in your dungeons…"

_So that's what went on during the night of Thom's death. Nikita had been captured and was in the dungeons…_ Imogen thought.

"But I got away, and I'm never stopping," the video of Nikita continued. "So if any or you recruits, or agents are having any doubts… and you should, I'm always looking for another good soldier."

The video just disappeared after that, and Imogen left the training room. Not to get into contact with Nikita, but to go back to Birkhoff's office. Nikita must have captured him, and if that message had just appeared, Birkhoff must be back in Division; he would have made that video appear after running a scan for any breaches.

Another hour or so later, after Birkhoff finished vetting every tracker with Michael, on Percy's orders, he went back to his office. When he got there he was that papers were strewn everywhere. He thought that someone had broken in for a moment, but then he saw the familiar sleeping form of Imogen on his couch.

He went over to her and shook her awake. When she opened her eyes and saw that it was him, she flung her arms around him in a tight hug.

"I was so worried," she whispered in his ear.

"It's okay now," he reassured her, hugging her back. "I'm fine; the nerd… your nerd, is perfectly fine."


	22. Academia

**A/N: Another update! I just wanted to give everyone a heads up, this will probably be the last chapter until Monday. I am going to be packing tomorrow, and combined with another writing project I may not get time to write more for this. I am going to the movie theatre Friday morning and then straight to my grandparent's where, while I will have time to write, I do not have internet. So if there is no update by about 11pm tomorrow, the next one should be up around Monday. That being said, enjoy this chapter and be sure to leave a review when you're done! I should mention that this takes place a little bit before Coup De Grace, though this chapter does have the time span of a week or so.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>The past few weeks had been amazing for Birkhoff and Imogen. By sheer luck they had managed to avoid detection by anyone else in Division. They had thrown caution to the wind in regards to how they felt about each other. After Birkhoff had been kidnapped, the two of them realized that they just couldn't just be friends; it wasn't possible for them.<p>

So after they resigned themselves to that fact, they both had to plan out how to avoid being discovered. Birkhoff had told Imogen to not worry about it; that he had it covered. He went through escape routes from his office though, showing her the vents and other things.

"I'm making sure that you are safe," he had explained to her.

Since that change, Imogen had become so much happier than normal. However, she really didn't let anyone notice that anything was different about her. Imogen just applied herself to her training and to the computer work.

* * *

><p>"She seems to be improving fast," Michael commented, watching Imogen from Operations. "Should we start considering graduation?"<p>

"Not yet," Percy said. "I want to see a little more from her first."

"I agree," Amanda said, coming up behind the two men. "She still has a little ways to go."

* * *

><p>Imogen was weighting lifting in the training room. She had decided that she had trained enough in endurance and in hand to hand combat. The only other two areas were strength and marksmanship. She had not been getting any new missions, so all she had to occupy her time was Birkhoff and keeping her head down.<p>

On the outside, she looked to be a hard working recruit determined not to fall behind the rest of them or mess up in any way. But on the inside, she was a giddy teenage girl who had her very first crush. Not that Birkhoff was the first guy that she had ever liked, but because he was making her feel weak in the knees; basically, just like a first crush.

Luckily Imogen was really good at hiding her emotions; that was why no one at Division had noticed the change. She also had to hide the extent of her feelings to Birkhoff. Imogen trusted him, sure, but she was also trying to protect herself. She knew that there was no choice for her on whether she was going to be involved with him or not; but she refused to be the first one to say anything about the extent of those feelings.

She lifted weight after weight, and soon she began to sweat. She kept lifting for another fifteen minutes, but then she decided that enough was enough, and dropped the weights. Imogen made her way over to the showers, knowing full well that no one else would be in there. She made sure that whenever she went there, that there was the least amount of recruits there as possible. As tough as she made herself out to be, Imogen was incredibly self-conscious about her body.

When Imogen stepped out of the shower though, she was struck by an idea. She vaguely remembered that her father had several tattoos, and she thought that her mother might have had some as well, but she wasn't sure. What if, when she got out, she went to get one? It seemed like a good idea to her; maybe it would actually give her something to be proud of.

Imogen left that for another day, and after checking the computer lab, she head down to Birkhoff's office. He had informed her earlier that day that Amanda, Percy, and Michael were going to be occupied in Operations. When she had asked about why he wasn't going to be in there, he had replied with something about him being on vacation, but that he was going to be in his office for most of that time.

"Hey B," she said, walking down the steps.

"Hello Immy," he greeted pulling her close to him.

"How's your vacation been?" she asked.

"Much better now that you're here," he smirked.

"You're getting cocky," she said, moving away from him.

"I know," he replied.

"So, are we going to play Mortal Kombat?" she asked.

"Are you challenging me?" he said, folding his arms.

"Of course," she responded.

"What are the stakes?" he inquired.

"The usual ones," she said, sitting down onto his couch and taking a controller. "Let's go B, see if you can beat me. I dare you."

"You're on," he said, and then turned on the game.

The game dragged on and on, neither one of them giving up any ground. However, before Birkhoff even knew what was going on, Imogen pulled out a secret weapon and took his avatar down.

"Sucker," she said.

"How?" he said, sounding shocked.

"That's my secret," she said. "I'll never tell you."

"Never?" he asked.

"Never," she said.

Imogen leaned closer for a moment, stole a kiss, and then disappeared from his office. Things were never simple or straightforward with the two of them, not even now that they had gotten together. They always seemed to play little games with each other; a case in point being Imogen messing with him during the Mortal Kombat game.

Despite all of this, the fact that she was incredibly happy and that she was finally making plans for her escape, she kept thinking about what she had heard in the dark hallways when Thom died. The recruits had been told afterwards that Thom as the mole and that he had now been neutralized… but Imogen just wasn't buying it. The argument that she had heard seemed like Thom had found out some incriminating information about Alex… like maybe she was the mole and he caught her.

"They must've gotten into a fight," Imogen whispered.

When Imogen got back to her room, she started drawing out everything that she remembered that had seemed a little suspicious about both Thom and Alex. Nothing major was popping out at her, until she remembered the heated conversation with Sara. Alex wanted to help her prep for her mission… Imogen knew that no recruit would ever do that for another.

"Unless they had an ulterior motive," she muttered.

Imogen knew that Nikita intercepted that mission, which was incredibly suspicious. Alex had to be the mole, there was no other explanation. When she really put her mind to it, she was beginning to come up with other instances that seemed odd. Another example was Alex's unwarranted hostility with Jaden; and vice versa. Jaden was a bitch, sure, but not enough to keep drawing attention to herself that could put her wellbeing at Division in danger.

"Oh Alex," she said. "What have you gotten yourself into? You have to be smart in this business."

* * *

><p>"So who are we going to send on this mission?" Michael asked.<p>

"Well, since you don't want to be involved Michael, we've picked Stephen to lead the operation," Percy answered.

"Good choice," he said. "You should send Alex; she would benefit."

"I'll tell Stephen; I'm sure that he will take that into consideration," Percy answered. "Now don't you have a weapons training lesson to oversee?"

"I'm on it Percy," Michael said as he left the office.

* * *

><p>"You're going to learn how to shoot with two guns today," Michael said, slipping ammo into the guns.<p>

"And that's at the same time?" Imogen asked.

"Exactly," Michael said, holding out the guns to her.

Imogen took the guns, holding them up to the ceiling.

"How do you want me to shoot?" she asked.

"To kill," he replied.

"Yes, I figured that," she said. "Do you want the head or the heart? There's more than one kill point."

"Gold star," Michael said. "Go for the heart this time. You have one minute."

"Three, two…" she said, turning to the shooting range where the dummy was located. "One."

Imogen began shooting each gun, aiming for the heart. Each and every single bullet hit right around its mark; only two strays."

"Good job," Michael said, after the minute was up. "Reload the guns while I switch the targets, and we'll try this exercise again."

"Let me guess… I'm aiming for the head this time?" she said, walking over to the ammo.

"Yes," Michael said, and then turned away to switch the dummy.

Everything was set up perfectly in a matter of minutes, and then Michael stood behind Imogen once more.

"One minute: go," he said.

Yet again the air was filled with the bangs from Imogen's two guns, and she hit her target's head each and every time. Though this time she decided to play with Michael a bit, and she made sure that her shots to the head weren't centered in one specific spot.

"Nice joke," he said.

"I try," she replied.

"You know, if you keep this up you could be graduating pretty soon," he commented as he took the guns away.

"I know," she replied.

"Go ahead and leave," he said. "You should probably go back to the training room and get some more practice in."

"What about the computer lab?" she asked, climbing up the stairs.

"I think that you've had enough hacking practice for now," he said. "Focus on something else for a bit."

Imogen decided to heed Michael's advice and headed on over to the training room. Once again she picked up the weights and started lifting. She was always seen as the weak little girl, and while that came in handy at times, she thought that building up some muscle would be even better for that. So if that time came when the person decided to try and take advantage of that little girl… she would be ready. She was planning her escape from Division, but Imogen had to time it well. Once she was on the outside she was going to get in touch with a couple of her contacts and from there set up the meeting to disable her tracker. But she couldn't count on not going on another mission before she managed to do that; so she had to really impress them and work at her training.

The next problem… probably the biggest problem that she was going to have, was pulling the trigger or shooting the target with drugs on her mission. She would have to take a life, and though she was almost prepared now to kill the people who had chased her family and killed her parents… she didn't want to hurt anyone else.

"I'll just have to suck it up and deal," she muttered under her breath as she put away the weights. "I just have to remember that it's for my family."

"You don't have a family," Jaden said, having suddenly come up to Imogen.

"Beat it Jaden," she said sternly, pushing past her.

Imogen went straight to the computer lab, ignoring Jaden's protests as she left the training room. Once she was there she began to do some innocent busy work on one of the computers. There were a few other recruits in there at the time, but Imogen saw that they were all occupied with whatever they were doing on the computers. After about ten minutes of "working", Imogen carefully got up from her desk and walked over to the front one. She reached out her hand as she walked by it, covertly slipping a USB key into her pocket. She sat back down at her desk and continued working for another ten minutes or so, before leaving the computer lab.

"No one noticed," she said out loud once she was safely in her room. "Awesome."

* * *

><p>Birkhoff was playing Mortal Kombat for what felt like the millionth time that night, but in reality he had not stopped playing since Imogen had left his office. She had finally beaten him at the game, but he was confused as to how that could have happened. He gave her a file about it sure, but she hadn't had enough time to really study the file, or the game itself. She had to have been either really lucky; or she found another way to beat the game.<p>

Birkhoff was scratching his head… he just couldn't figure out how she could have done it. She used one of his tricks, but where did she learn that?

"It wasn't in the file," he said to himself.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh snap! :O Shocking? Yes? No? Please review!<strong>


	23. Monster

**A/N: Okay, I lied. I had no idea that there was a high speed connection up here now…but there is, even if it is a weak one. So I managed to get some writing time, thus the update. I hope that you enjoy this chapter, and then leave a review. Things are about to get interesting ;) By the way, this chapter title is from the song called Monster by Kate-Miller Heidke, who just so happens to be my favourite artist at the moment. :D**

* * *

><p>"You are going to come up with a few ideas for new security protocols for Division," Michael explained to Imogen in the small computer lab.<p>

"Do you have any specific things that you want me to cover?" Imogen immediately asked.

"All I want is the highest security that you can come up with," Michael said.

"If I am allowed to ask," Imogen began.

"You can ask anything that helps you with this task," Michael interrupted. "Provided that it doesn't supersede your level of clearance."

"What exactly am I protecting Division against?" Imogen asked. "Is it against Nikita? I saw that… video that she made."

"You and everyone else did," Michael grumbled. "If you must really know, yes, you are going to be helping to protect Division against Nikita. We cannot afford her to keep breaking in like that."

"Alright, so absolute maximum protection?" she asked.

"Exactly," Michael said. "And one more thing Imogen; if you do well on this, I can guarantee that you will get a graduation mission very soon."

"And if I don't?" she prompted.

"I don't think that you need me to tell you what will happen if you don't do well," Michael said as he left the lab.

"No I do not," Imogen said to herself, once she was alone.

Imogen could now tell that she was rising quite fast in the eyes of the "higher ups" in Division. They kept giving her in-house tasks to do, and she had one on one weapons training with Michael every other day. There was something suspicious about all of this though. Why was all of it happening? Imogen knew that Thom had not received this kind of attention before his graduation; and Alex didn't either. So why was she receiving it?

* * *

><p>Birkhoff was lazing around his apartment that afternoon with nothing to do. He was on leave, so he didn't have anything to do with the current mission; Operation Castle. He had a lot on his mind the past little while. He had noticed that Amanda, Percy, and Michael, were all giving Imogen a lot more attention over the past couple of weeks. They talked about her quite a bit in Operations; Birkhoff knew that they were considering her for agent status very soon.<p>

On one hand, he was extremely proud of his girl.

_Wow…. My girl_, he thought. _That's new._

But on the other hand he was very worried about her, not to mention nervous about the fact that her agent tracker would come with a kill chip. How could he avoid that? Birkhoff wasn't sure that he could avoid it at all… so how would he live with himself knowing that he was going to be putting her in danger intentionally?

* * *

><p>"Alex," Michael said as he walked into Operations. "Prepping for your op?"<p>

"It's the key to success, right?" Alex asked. "Preparation?"

"Stephen's a good man," Michael commented. "He's a good team leader for your first."

"How 'bout you?" Alex asked. "Are you done making this place Nikita-proof?"

"Almost; still need to set some redundancies," Michael said. "She has a way of corrupting systems from the inside, like a cancer."

Michael paused for a moment and then continued. "Alex. There's no such thing as an easy mission."

* * *

><p>Imogen worked and worked on this project in the small lab. Some of her ideas included timed password changes, with a sheet printing out directly in Operations containing the new password, and different security programs. These programs that she installed routinely checked through the network and sent a report back to Operations, showing any unusual activity on the system. The shell program that Birkhoff had discovered was already removed, so Imogen didn't have to worry about it at all.<p>

Even though she did follow Michael's directions on keeping Division safe very strictly, she did allow herself one deviation from the instructions. Unbeknownst to anyone, she installed yet another program onto the network. This program wasn't like the two-way chat; it was way more sophisticated. This program that was so simple yet so complicated at the same time, would allow Imogen a direct window into Division for when she finally escaped. She didn't plan on using it, she had nothing against Division at the moment, but she was resourceful. Imogen was taking precautions incase she needed to get into their network someday.

"They aren't going to screw with me," she muttered."

Imogen knew at the very least that they would try to hunt her down when she ran for it, so this program would allow her to track their moves in finding her. She would be able to evade them better that way.

* * *

><p>A kill chip.<p>

Birkhoff was staring up at the ceiling from the bed in his apartment. The only thing that his mind was telling him right now was that he would have to put a kill chip in Imogen's head sooner or later. He could just not put it in, because then if Percy, or anyone else really, found out about that; he would surely be cancelled, along with her. Birkhoff was beginning to think that his only option would be to just follow orders, and have faith that Imogen would not do anything that would put her in danger of cancellation.

* * *

><p>"How is everything coming?" Michael asked Imogen as he stepped into the room.<p>

"I have a few security protocols in place so far," she said.

"Alright," he answered. "Explain this one to me."

"Well, this password one basically means that the password for everything on the network will have a routine change," she explained. "Right now I have the parameters set for a change twice a day."

"Okay, but how do you get the new password?" Michael asked, thinking that he found a flaw.

"I have arranged it so that a piece of paper with the password written on it will print out in Operations," she said. "And before you say anything, it will only print in Operations and nowhere else. I have made sure of that."

"Well, this seems like a good start," he said.

"I thought so," she smirked.

"You can go back to your room for now," Michael told her. "But I expect you back here tomorrow morning. I will be around at the beginning to run through a couple more things with you."

"Alright," she said.

Michael nodded at her and then left the room, Imogen following close behind.

* * *

><p>"Looks like Zahidov's been openly critical of the president," Nikita said, looking at a computer screen. "With some popular support, he could start an uprising."<p>

"He'll have plenty of it after the prince is assassinated," Alex said. "So we need to get to the prince."

"Zahidov's head of his security," Nikita said. "He'll be watching him like a hawk."

"What about Kristina?" Alex asked. "You want to get past Jafar, you go straight to princess Jasmine, right?"

"Good," Nikita said. "I'll work on a cover to get in to the museum event. We'll be in and out before Division even gets there."

"Sounds easy enough," Alex said, taking a deep breath. "So this is us, on the outside… working together."

"A whole new world," Nikita said, smiling.

* * *

><p>As per the deal, Imogen was at the small computer lab right on time the next morning. She was lucky that she had installed her private program yesterday, because Michael spent the remainder of this exercise overseeing the work and giving her other things that he wanted to add to it.<p>

Once they were done fixing up the security, Imogen headed down to the training room where she spent another few hours beating on the heavy bag. She didn't bother standing close to it like she would attempt to when fighting a real opponent, because she wanted to make sure that she could hold her own even when she wasn't in the perfect position.

Imogen knew in her head that she had done really well on that assignment, so she had to make sure that she carried the good attention onto her graduation. Her gut told her that her graduation mission would be coming very soon, even though she did not know exactly when it would be.

"I need a sparring partner," a fellow recruit said. "Would you mind?"

"Not at all," she said, moving over to the mats. "I'd be happy to spar with you. Though I have to warn you; I'm quite good."

"I know," the recruit replied. "I'm new, so I think that I need a lot of practice."

"Well then. Let's get started!" Imogen said.

The two of them sparred for what felt like days to the new recruit, but in reality it was only a couple of hours. Imogen went for a shower after that, and then sat in her room just staring at the ceiling. Birkhoff was still on leave at the moment, and he had actually gone back to his apartment, so she couldn't visit him.

* * *

><p>Birkhoff was currently playing through every single video game that he owned in an attempt to distract himself from his problem. It was working to a point, but it didn't get Imogen out of his mind.<p>

Apart from the fact that he really did like her a lot, there was something oddly familiar about her. It took him awhile to figure it out, but then he realized that she seemed a little bit like a female version of himself.

"Except prettier," he reminded himself.

He went through many cans of Red Bull, slices of pizza, and Twizzlers over the next few hours. He didn't have to worry about Imogen right this moment, since he knew that Division's focus would be on Operation Castle, which had apparently hit a little bit of a snag.

* * *

><p>Michael was extremely frustrated. His day had started out good when he managed to complete the restructuring of the security with Imogen, but then he got called to action by Percy.<p>

He managed to get the Dvision agents to stand down, but he knew that Nikita was still in the builing.

"Safeties off," he ordered.

He ran with his men to the basement to look for Nikita. They ran into some gas that was obscuring their vision; presumably set off by Nikita. Just then he got a message from an agent outside.

"The prince is in NYPD custody," the agent said.

"Is Nikita with him?" Michael immediately asked.

"There's a woman," the agent told him. "But it's not Nikita."

Michael then paged one of the agents who was searching with him to see if anything had been found.

"Donovan, did you find anything?" Michael asked. "Donovan?"

When there was no answer, Michael went back the way he came and saw Donovan's body lying on the ground.

"Damnit," he curse, nodded to the second agent, and then made his way out of the building.

A little while later, when Michael was back at Division, he went over the debriefs and decided to call Alex to check up.

"Alex. Did I catch you at a bad time?" he asked.

"Not at all," she answered.

"How's your new place?" he asked.

"Great," she responded. "Feels like home already. What's up?"

"I just wanted to say nice work," he said.

"Nice work? We blew the mission," Alex said sounding confused.

"Stephen blew the mission," Michael corrected. "From what I can tell, reading all the debriefs, you kept your cool. Stephen overplayed his hand."

"He was outplayed," Alex said.

"By Nikita," Michael said.

"Nikita," Alex repeated.

* * *

><p>The next morning Imogen was almost ready for the day when she got a knock on the door.<p>

"Come in," she called out.

Imogen somehow wasn't surprised when Michael walked in to her room.

"You've been activated for your graduation mission," he said.

"Already?" she asked.

"Already," Michael confirmed. "You have debriefing now, and then you are going to see Amanda. Are you ready?"

"I guess that I have to be ready," she said confidently.

"Right then, come with me," Michael said as he opened the door once more.

Imogen walked through the door before Michael, but she waited until he was in front of her before starting to walk down the hall.

This was it.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh look! She''s going to graduate! Except now she has to kill someone...which she doesn't really want to do. Anyways, leave a review and maybe I'll update really soon!<strong>


	24. Hurricane

**A/N: I am slightly disappointed in the review turn out of the last…three chapters. But having said that, I am still going to update as planned. But just so everyone knows, my updates do come a lot faster if people review more. Last week was just because I had a lot of time and was staying up really late (and I was getting more reviews). Anyways, I hope that everyone really enjoys this chapter, and reviews once they are done reading!**

* * *

><p>"Your task is simple," Percy explained. "You are going to enter the garden party as a member of the staff, and for about half an hour or so you will just be serving drinks, understand?"<p>

"Yes sir," Imogen answered.

"You must wait for the target to drink a few drinks, before you spike his drink with this vial," Percy held up a small glass vial or liquid as he finished speaking.

"What is in it?" she asked.

"Ipecac," Percy said. "It induces vomiting. Once you give the target this, you are to escort him inside to the upstairs bathroom where you will shoot the target in the head."

"What about the noise?" Imogen inquired.

"Your gun will be fitted with a silencer before the mission starts so there will be no need to worry about the noise," Michael answered.

"What about my extraction?" Imogen asked.

"You will signal myself and my team," Michael said. "When you are about to hand over the drink to the target and we will prepare for your extraction. I will be waiting for you as soon as you reach the bottom of the stairs."

"You understand that, should you fail-" Percy began.

"I will be wasted, I get it," Imogen finished. "I won't fail though. I can guarantee it."

"Go and see Amanda now," Michael said.

"Alright," Imogen said, and then she walked out of the room.

"She seems confident," Percy remarked thoughtfully.

"Let's just hope her skills match what she says," Michael added.

* * *

><p>"So you're graduating then," Amanda said as she rifled through the clothing rack.<p>

"Why do we have to go through the dress? I was told that I was going to be masquerading as a member of staff?" Imogen said.

"You are," Amanda said. "But it needs to be a modified version so that you can conceal the gun and the vial of Ipecac."

"Right," Imogen nodded.

"Well, try this on," Amanda said, shoving a shirt and pants at Imogen. "We will test it to see if everything is concealed nicely."

"Okay," Imogen said, taking the clothes from Amanda's hands.

She walked behind the screen and began to change in silence. She buttoned up the shirt and then walked out to face Amanda.

"No, that combination won't work," Amanda muttered. "Try again."

It took Imogen a few more tries to get the right combination of clothes, but finally Amanda approved of the clothes.

"The mission is tomorrow morning," Amanda said.

"I know," Imogen said.

"Go," Amanda said. "Be here very early tomorrow, you've still got some preparation to do."

"Okay," Imogen said, right before she left Amanda's lair.

Imogen was very nervous as she was leaving; she wished that she didn't have to pull the trigger. She would have preferred the method of killing to be something else entirely. Not that she wanted to kill anyone, but since she had to do it anyways… the gun was the worst.

Instead of going back to her room like she was expected to, Imogen made her way to Birkhoff's office. She just had to see him tonight, because even though she was quite confident that she would succeed, this could very well be the last chance that she had to see him.

"Birkhoff?" she whispered as she stepped into his office. "Are you there?"

It took a moment, but Imogen saw a figure sit up on the couch and stand.

"I'm here," he said.

"I'm graduating," she said, moving towards him.

"I heard that," he said, walking quickly towards her and closing the distance.

"I don't know what to do," she said to him. "I don't want to kill anyone B, I really don't."

"I know," he said. "But if you're going to have a chance…if we're going to have a chance, you've got to."

"Will you be monitoring the mission?" she asked.

"No, probably not," he said. "They haven't told me yet. But I am going to help you get wired tomorrow before you go."

"But you won't be able to say anything, except tell me how everything works," she said, speaking his unspoken thoughts.

"I know," he said, stroking her cheek.

"I have to go," she said. "I can't stay here; they might come looking for you."

"Please don't go," he said, gripping onto her hand thus preventing her from leaving.

"I have to B," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

She gently took her hand away from Birkhoff's grip, and then turned around and left his office; not looking back. She couldn't look back; she wouldn't be able to get out of there if she did.

* * *

><p>The next morning Imogen woke up and made her way towards Amanda's lair. She was freaking out in her mind already, but she was still holding it together. When she arrived, not only was there Amanda there waiting for her, but Birkhoff and Michael as well.<p>

"Here," Amanda said. "Change into the pants, but before you get the shirt on fully, Birkhoff needs to set up the wire properly."

"I could do it," she said, not looking at Birkhoff.

"I'm sure that you could," Michael interjected. "But t needs to be done exactly right, otherwise people will notice."

"I guess so," Imogen said.

She moved behind the screen and put on the pants, but held the shirt in her hands.

"I'm ready," she said.

She heard Birkhoff moving and then he appeared behind the screen with her. He didn't look at her, just down at his hand, where he was holding one cord with a recording device stuck to the end. When he did look at her, Imogen could see Birkhoff suck in a breath and then mouth the word 'wow' to himself.

"Right then," he said, attaching the cord and recording device to her body. "This is automatic, but it is only going to record for two hours from the time that you leave the van. So you have to—"

"Complete the mission quick, I know," she finished, sliding the shirt onto her body and buttoning it up.

"Good luck," he mouthed to her, not making a sound.

"I'm ready to go now," she said stepping out from behind the screen.

"Alright then let's get going," Michael said, putting a hand on her back and leading her out of Amanda's lair.

As they were walking down the hall and out of Division, Michael started to speak to Imogen again.

"If you succeed," he started.

"When," Imogen interjected.

"Alright, when you succeed," Michael said, correcting himself. "When you succeed in completing this mission, and after you are brought back to division, you will immediately be brought to get your agent tracker."

"Will I be leaving today to my own place?" she asked.

"Probably not, but it depends on how long the procedure takes. I doubt it," Michael said.

"So one more night in Division?" she said.

"One more night in Division," Michael confirmed.

* * *

><p>Imogen was standing behind the bar, just waiting for the target to come back for his fourth drink. It had only been just over half an hour, so Imogen was allowed to spike the next one with Ipecac. She had already received that little bit of information from Michael, who was listening in on the operation through the wire that Imogen was wearing, and could talk to her through a tiny little earpiece.<p>

Finally, after another ten minutes, the target approached the bar again and gruffly said "Whiskey please, on the rocks."

"Coming right up sir," Imogen said; a fake smile on her face.

She turned away from the target and to the back of the bar, where she pulled out a glass, shoved some ice cubes in it, and looked for the whiskey bottle. She found it almost immediately, and she poured the whiskey into the glass. She discreetly checked to see if anyone was looking at her and slipped the vial of Ipecac into her hand, pouring the liquid into the drink. Imogen then turned around and handed the glass over to the target.

The target took a large gulp of his whiskey, and after about thirty seconds he threw up all over the bar. Imogen signaled to one of the other staff members and then said, "He's gotten sick. Would you mind cleaning this up while I take him upstairs? I don't want him to hurt himself, or embarrass himself even more."

The other staff member nodded, so Imogen got out from behind the bar and lead the target out of the room and over to the stairs. Getting him up the stairs was extremely difficult, since he looked like he would get sick again, he was stumbling, and Imogen had to make sure that he didn't feel the gun that was hidden in the folds of her clothes. Also, Imogen had started shaking because she knew that the time had almost come for her to pull the trigger. They hadn't told her why she was supposed to kill this man, just that he was "dirty", and she didn't bother asking why. All she wanted was to make this as clean as possible.

"We're almost there sir," she said as they reached the top of the stairs. "We're almost to the bathroom; just hold it in a little bit longer."

The man she was almost half carrying barely nodded in response. The two of them finally reached the bathroom, which was when Imogen heard Michael's voice in her ear.

"When he's puking the toilet, get out your gun," Michael said. "And complete the mission. You understand?"

"Yes," Imogen whispered so that the target couldn't hear her talking.

Imogen pushed the door open with one hand while steadying the target with the other. She gently lowered him to the floor, where he immediately wrapped his arms around the toilet bowl and puked inside it. While he was busy doing that, Imogen untucked her shirt and carefully slid out her gun. She checked the silencer and raised the gun to point it at the back of the target's head.

"Fire," Michael said in her ear, having heard what was going on in the bathroom.

Imogen shook a little, just watching the man helplessly puke in the toilet. He was making go awful retching sounds, and she had caused that. She just couldn't pull the trigger; she didn't want to kill anyone. But when the target moved his head and stared at her in disbelief, she knew that she had no choice but to shoot him.

"Why?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Because if I don't, they'll kill me," she said, tears threatening to escape her eyes. "I'm sorry."

Imogen hesitated once again, steeled herself, and then closed her eyes. She pressed down on the trigger, letting the bullet fly silently straight into the target's skull. Then, just because she knew that she would have to make sure that he was dead, she shot him again in the heart. Imogen hid the gun again, and then bent over to check the target's pulse; she had to confirm his death. Feeling nothing, she stood up and exited the bathroom, wiping her eyes before heading down the stairs to where Michael was waiting for her.

"Is it done?" Michael asked in a low voice.

"Yes," Imogen answered as they slid out the front door.

Once they were outside, the two of them walked briskly to the van. Imogen jumped into the back, where all of the surveillance equipment was, while Michael sat on the other side of her.

"You confirmed the kill right?" he asked her.

"I did yes," Imogen nodded. "It was a clean shot to the back of the skull; I don't think he knew what hit him."

"Good job," Michael said.

* * *

><p>"Alright Imogen," Percy said. "How did you leave the scene?"<p>

"I shot him in the back of the head with the silencer on," she explained. "It was a clean shot; it killed him instantly. I checked his pulse to be sure, but I never found one. I then exited the bathroom and walked down the stairs, to where Michael was waiting to extract me from the house."

"Good," Percy said. "You're an agent now, congratulations. There is one more thing that you have to do however."

"Let me guess, get my agent tracker?" she said.

"Yes," Percy nodded seriously. "Birkhoff is waiting in Medical for you."

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><p><strong>She's graduated! Next chapter is going to be a big one, so leave a review and I will update really quickly!<strong>


	25. Cosmic Love

**A/N: Thanks to the one person who reviewed last chapter! I really love reading the feedback! This update is a big one, as is the one after this. I hope that everyone enjoys, and that I get more than one review. Either way… :P And yes, this is The Next Seduction chapter. The reason why I was asking about how much time passes between this episode and Pandora…isn't completely clear in this chapter. ;) You'll have to wait even longer, but I promise that it will blow your mind when all is revealed.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Nikita.**

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><p>Imogen nodded, and then she left Percy's office, being escorted by Michael to Medical. Once she was there, Michael left her in the capable hands of Birkhoff and the doctor.<p>

"Ready?" Birkhoff said.

"How long will it take?" she asked, willing Birkhoff to realize her silent question.

"About half an hour," he answered. "Although you will want to rest for a bit afterwards."

"How long will I have to rest?" she asked, still trying to imply something to Birkhoff.

"A couple hours should do it," Birkhoff replied, finally catching onto what she was saying.

Imogen nodded, lay down on the operating table, and within a minute was passed out due to whatever the doctor had given her; she wouldn't be able to feel a thing while she was being operated on.

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><p>Approximately half an hour later, just like Birkhoff had told her, the procedure was done and Imogen was waking up just as the doctor put a bandage on the back of her neck.<p>

"Ow," she said.

"Yeah, it's going to be sore for a little while," Birkhoff said. "Right. Now, don't try to take this out, it will trigger an alert and no one wants that to happen. However, feel secure in knowing that we can find you anywhere, one of the beauties of this being picked up by satellite."

Imogen nodded, barely taking in what Birkhoff was telling her. He left shortly after that, but then Michael came in to go over the plan for the evening and the next day.

"You are going to stay in your recruit room for the night," he explained. "There are still a few kinks to smooth over with your new place, but everything will be sorted tomorrow and that is when you will move in. That being said, I need to discuss your cover with you."

Imogen briefly thought in her head that, if all went well… she wouldn't need to know her cover. She was going to escape as soon as possible; hopefully making a break for it tonight.

"What is my cover?" she asked so that he wouldn't get suspicious.

"Imogen Peters," Michael began, Imogen's flinch at the last name going unnoticed. "Is working for a software development company."

"I see," she said, nodding. "Any specific details?"

"No," Michael said. "Those are up to you, just be sure to make them realistic and consistent."

"Okay," Imogen smiled.

"Go back to your recruit room now," Michael said. "And pack up your things; everything needs to be ready for early tomorrow."

Michael then left Medical, leaving Imogen on her own to lift herself off of the table and into a standing position. She walked just fine on her way to her room, but the back of her neck was bothering her immensely.

Once she was in her room, she gathered up the few objects that she was sure Division hadn't tampered with, and smuggled them out of there. She quickly made her way to a tunnel that she knew led out of Division, and stashed the items in there. Even if she didn't manage to escape that night, she wanted to be sure that they would be there the next day. If she didn't escape, Imogen would move them from there to her apartment.

Imogen hurried back to her room so that no one saw her moving around Division. She did pack up the rest of her stuff so that no one would get suspicious, and then she decided that she would take a short nap before going to see Birkhoff.

* * *

><p><em>Elsewhere… (Berlin, 2:43am)<em>

A black man was walking down a deserted pathway in-between a couple buildings when his phone rang.

"Agent Conahan, this is Jurgen. I'm late, but we shall meet at the location we discussed," the voice on the other end said. "Please wait there for me."

The voice then hung up the phone, not waiting for a response. The black man dialed another number and waited for someone to pick up.

"Sir, its Conahan. The meeting is on," the man, Conahan, said. "I'll contact you when I have the package."

When Conahan hung up the phone he heard some sort of noise; someone opening a gate to a fence or something similar.

"Jurgen?" he called out. "You have the weapon?"

There was a man in the shadows, but he didn't respond. Instead, he raised a gun and shot Conahan a couple of times. The gun didn't make a sound, which indicated that there was a silencer on it.

* * *

><p>An hour later and Imogen was awake in her room. She was pacing back and forth, a worried and sad look on her face. The reason seemed to be the paper and pen in her hands. She was chewing on the end of the pen as well. She didn't normally do that, she didn't do that ever actually, but something about what she was writing was really nerve-wracking.<p>

She kept pacing back and forth for a little while longer, writing a few sentences every now and again. Finally she just collapsed onto her bed and stared into space; not really seeing anything. She dropped the pen to the bed for a moment, and her hand absentmindedly moved to clutch her necklace, fingering the individual charms.

"What to do?" she whispered.

After a few more minutes Imogen just sat up, grabbed the pen again, and walked over to her desk. She started writing really fast, though she had to pause every now and again to wipe a tear from her eyes.

* * *

><p>Birkhoff sat in his office, clicking the mouse for his computers. His eyes looked at the screen, and were drinking in the information even if his mind was half missing from that task.<p>

He was thinking about Imogen, and the fact that he had not only put a tracker on her, but a kill chip as well. He had no choice, not with other people in the room at the time. His head was telling him that he made the right choice; that because he had followed the orders that he was given… the both of them would be safe. His head told him that they would have both been cancelled immediately; or at least he would have been, and someone else would have put the kill chip in anyways.

But the problem was that Birkhoff's decision was not sitting well with him—with his heart. It seemed like he had really gotten attached to her, something that didn't normally happened. He was thinking about deactivating it… but he didn't exactly know how to do that. If he had a little bit of time, then he may be able to accomplish that; however nothing was guaranteed.

That being said, Birkhoff wasn't really paying much attention to what was on his computer screen anymore. Now he was just anxiously awaiting Imogen's arrival at his office. She had hinted to him right before the operation that she wanted to come see him; he had let her know that he understood, but had also warned that she should probably wait a couple of hours.

* * *

><p>Imogen finally put down the pen and once she put the finishing touches on the paper that she had been writing on, she folded it up. Then, she picked up the pen again and scribbled something on the front of it.<p>

She grabbed a little bag and put the paper in it, and then left her room with just herself and that bag. She didn't know if she would be coming back to that room or not, so she wanted to take everything that she possibly could with her; out of the things that she knew were safe from Division and did not have any sort of tracking device hidden in them.

She walked quietly down the halls of Division, being careful to not be seen by anyone. Imogen was making her way to Birkhoff's office, where she hoped that he was sitting in. She knew that he had gotten her message, or at least she was confident that he had, but Imogen was still worrying. She wasn't sure if he would have waited; she had taken a little bit longer than she had originally estimated.

Imogen made quick work of navigating through Division, and reached Birkhoff's office in what she thought to be record time.

"B?" she said softly once she arrived.

A sleeping figure jerked awake and then stood up at the sound of her voice.

"Hey," he said.

Imogen walked up to him, slipping her bag off and placed it onto the floor.

"How've you been?" she asked. "We haven't gotten much time to talk lately."

"Don't you worry about me, I've been okay," he said, sitting next to her. "Is your tracker bothering you at all?"

"I don't think that it's hurting as such," Imogen said. "I think that it is just sore really. I guess you could say it's like I bumped something or pulled a muscle."

"Oh I see," Birkhoff nodded.

"How about we talk about something else?" she asked. "I don't want to be reminded about what I did to get myself here… even if it was at the threat of losing my life."

"Alright," Birkhoff said with a hand on her thigh.

"How about a rematch in Mortal Kombat?" she asked with a slight smirk on her face.

"Sure," Birkhoff answered and picked up the controllers. "But I must warn you… last time was a fluke, I'm going to beat you this time around."

"Oh really? You think so?" she taunted.

"Yeah," he said, turning on the television and the game.

"Bring it on then," she said, and then turned to the screen as the game started.

It was harder than Imogen expected; obviously Birkhoff had been practicing since the last time that she had played against him. She wanted to see if she could prolong the game and not use any tricks, in an effort to… stay with him longer. Not that she was going to be leaving right after the game, though it still mattered.

"Come on, come on," Birkhoff muttered.

"Having trouble?" Imogen said.

"How did you get so much better?" he asked, not taking his eyes off of the screen in front of them.

"It's a secret," she said, nudging him.

"Oh, you playing with me?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Quite possibly," he said, still not looking at her.

The game was lasting a long time compared to the normal length, and Birkhoff was beginning to notice that fact.

"Are you trying to prolong this or something?" Birkhoff asked.

"Of course not," she lied.

"You might want to step it up, because I'm going to beat you if you aren't careful," Birkhoff said.

"Oh? Here I was thinking that you were going to beat me anyways, according to what you said. Is that not true?" she playfully taunted.

"Oh it'll still happen," Birkhoff said.

"You're going to have to prove it then," she said.

The two of them descended into silence once more, both focused on the game. Finally, Imogen knew that she couldn't prolong the game any longer without it becoming odd to Birkhoff (not that he would mind). But before she could pull the trick out and beat Birkhoff, he did another, more complicated thing that she didn't know and beat her.

"Damn it," she cursed.

"Thought you were going to win?" Birkhoff teased.

"Always," she said. "But good job all the same."

"You did really well as well," Birkhoff said as he shut off the television. "I'm really proud of you, and not just about this game. You've done really well here in general… I think that's why you graduated so soon."

"Thank you B," she said. "I started to notice some people giving me extra attention… I thought at first that they were trying to test me for some reason. But I guessed eventually that it wasn't the case."

"You were right about being concerned about being tested," Birkhoff said. "Percy tends to test people a lot and sometimes you don't even know it… Keep an eye out for that constantly, especially now that you're graduated."

"Thanks B," she smiled.

It was silent for a moment until the two of them leaned in and their lips connected. Both sets of eyes slowly closed; they were caught up in the moment. Imogen, in a split second decision and probably a selfish one, though she quickly squashed that thought, slid her hand underneath Birkhoff's shirt and pulled it off of him, with a little help from Birkhoff himself. Birkhoff, who seemed to agree with the idea (probably because he was a nerd and could take what he could get…), did the same service for Imogen, all the while thinking about those fateful three words in his mind.

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><p><strong>Please Review!<strong>


	26. The Moment I Said It

**A/N: Apologies to everyone! I was going to have this up last night, but then residence information started coming out for my university and I was really focused on finding out where I will be living starting in September! Anyways, it is out now and let me first say thank you for those who reviewed the last couple of chapters. From this point on the story is going to be VERY different, those most of it is going to come out in the next chapter. You'll hopefully see why when that comes. The format of the future chapters is somewhat similar to a select few previous ones, but not by much. Either way, I hope everyone enjoys this! The title is inspired by "The Moment I Said It" by Imogen Heap. -hahaha! ;) Please review!**

**Edit: There is a new poll on my profile, considering a possible sequel, so check it out!  
><strong>

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><p>Imogen got up and got dressed. She picked up her bag and took out the letter from it. She stared at it for moment and then left it on the keyboard in front of Birkhoff's computer. She looked at his sleeping form and tears started to make their way down her cheeks. She furiously blinked them away and then made her way out of his office as quiet as she possibly could. She took one last glance at him, before disappearing.<p>

She raced down the halls in her bare feet so that she did not make any noise. She reached the tunnel and skidded to a stop. She wrenched it open and climbed inside, only turning around to close the opening behind her. She grabbed her other meager possessions and crawled her way down a series of tunnels. She finally came to the end and was able to stand up in this huge space. There was a small ladder going up the side, and it lead to what looked to be a way out of Division.

Imogen started to climb the ladder after slinging both bags on her. She made quick work of it; before she knew it she was pushing open a hatch and she was in the open air.

"Ouch," Imogen winced as she put her feet onto the ground.

It was still covered in snow, therefore freezing on the bottoms of her feet. Digging through her bags, Imogen managed to find a pair of sneakers. They weren't much, but they would do for awhile. She put them on her feet and tied the laces, then took off running in the cold. Her cheeks were flushed a rosy pink, and her white-ish blond hair was streaming behind her. Tears stung her eyes; she was out of Division but she was also away from Birkhoff with no guarantees that she would ever see him again. She could get into Division's system, but she had to be extra careful or she could get Birkhoff into serious trouble.

Imogen ran across street after street. She had to make her way to her contact fast; she wasn't sure when people would notice that she was gone. She was running on a timer, and it was ticking down at the back of her head.

She was very lucky, and finally reached her contact's hiding place. She knocked on his door for about thirty seconds before they answered.

"Where's the fire?" they said once they answered the door.

"I have a kill chip and tracker in the back of my neck. It was put in…well, yesterday, and I need you to take it out now before they notice that I am gone," she said in a hurry.

"Okay okay, just come in quickly," they said ushering Imogen inside. "Let's get to work. This might hurt a bit."

"That's fine, I can take it," she said, thinking about the ached that she was feeling because of her leaving Birkhoff.

_It's nothing compared to what I'm feeling right now…_ she thought to herself.

* * *

><p>Birkhoff yawned and stretched his arms. He looked around and noticed that Imogen was gone; probably left to back to her room.<p>

"Smart," he muttered as he got up. "Don't want to be caught."

It still seemed like it was the middle of the night, though Birkhoff suspected that it was most likely closer to dawn. Nevertheless a small smirk made its way across his lips as he recalled the events of the night before. He shuffled over to his desk, intent on looking up Imogen's tracker and seeing if she had made it back to her room alright.

When he got there and sat down, he noticed a folded up piece of paper with his name on it. Figuring that it was from Imogen and she had left a note telling him that she had gone back to her room, he opened it with a small smile. But after reading the first few words, the smile slid off his face.

_Dear B,_

_I'm so sorry. I know that those words will never make up for what I have done, but I don't know what else to say. I had to make a run for it; I can't stay here any longer. I don't want to be a doll that's ordered around and manipulated by Percy and Amanda. I don't want to kill or be killed… I cannot handle it. You can hate me for leaving you if you want to, I wouldn't blame you, but at least hear what I have to say first._

_My parents were killed years ago, my mother when I was eight and my father when I was seventeen. My family had been on the run for as long as I can remember, we were being chased for something that my father did, from what I gather. But the specifics are still lost on me; I have no idea exactly why we were being chased. My father ordered me to leave the United States about a minute or so before his eventual death so that I would be safe. I was gone for quite some time, but then I had to come back to avenge him and my mother. _

_I tried to scare the people who were chasing my parents and I, but Division interfered and I got stuck here. I originally just planned on learning everything that I could and then making a break for it, but that all changed the second that I met you. My entire time here has been a complete masquerade, but not with you. You were the only real thing for me; trust me when I tell you this. If we were in another situation…I would never consider leaving. But I had to run tonight B, I mean it. I need to move my plan forward and get my revenge on the people who destroyed my childhood and ripped apart my family._

_I do have to confess something, and I am extremely sorry that I haven't told you this before. In my defense, it would have gotten me into a whole lot of trouble here had I let slip who I am. My father, after my mother's death, began to teach me everything he knew or could find out about computers and everything related to them. By the time that I left the United States I was really good. I spent my years abroad keeping my skills up to date by hacking into various servers across the world. I gained a reputation by doing this, which was probably why I had to move around a lot to ensure that no one found me._

_I do not know if you have heard of the Phantom, but that is one of the more common names that I am known by. I'm truly sorry that I didn't tell you this, but I hope that you understand why I had to keep it to myself. I hope that you can forgive me, but again I understand if you are not able to._

_I am not sure what is going to happen from this moment on to either myself or to you, but I will be thinking about you every single day that I am away. I truly hope that you do okay in Division; deny anything that they ask you about me. I don't want you getting yourself into any more trouble._

_I trust that you will be able to handle things in Division, and don't worry about me. By the time that people realize that I am gone I will have removed both the tracker and the kill chip from the back of my neck (yes, I know about the kill chip. I understand that you were protecting the both of us, though you could have told me. But I guess that I have no right to say that now…)_

_I know that they will search for me for a little while, but don't bother trying to lead them in the wrong direction. I know safe places; I have been running for a long time._

_I hope that… the next time that we meet, that I will be able to stop running from everything. I have grown weary of this; I need to take a rest. But I know that I can't until I find the source of why my family was targeted._

_You will always be in my heart, and I hope that I will be in yours…_

_Love,_

_Immy_

Birkhoff couldn't believe it. He was incredibly angry at her, but on the other hand she did make a good decision for herself. He felt betrayed by the fact that she had not told him about any of this, like she didn't trust him at all. Birkhoff was focused on that, that he barely noticed something taped to the bottom of the letter. It looked like some sort of charm, like the ones that she had on her necklace. He ripped it off the page carefully and looked closer. It was a heart charm… Birkhoff was a little confused by it, but he closed his hand over it anyways. He slipped the charm into his laptop bag, which he would take with him when he went back to his apartment.

He hoped to get out in a few minutes; Birkhoff would rather not be around when they found out that Imogen was gone. He knew that someone would call him in to help them look for her, whether it would be Percy, Michael, or even Amanda. At least with him not being there right off the bat, he would buy Imogen a little bit of time. As much hurt as he was feeling, he couldn't bring himself to find her and bring her back here. That would only result in her cancellation, and that wasn't good for anyone.

"Stay safe Imogen," he whispered, and then quickly made his way to the elevator out of Division.

Most people were still asleep at this hour, though the recruits would be up shortly. He managed to get the in the elevator and out of Division before anyone noticed that he was gone. It took him twenty minutes to get to his apartment, and after he finally did, Birkhoff hid both the letter and the charm that Imogen left for him. Once he did that, he had to bang his head on the desk and his fist against the wall in pure anger. He couldn't deny that he was frustrated with her, even if he really did care about her and her wellbeing. Another two hours later and his phone started to ring.

"They know she's gone," he said to himself before picking up the phone.

"Birkhoff," Michael's gruff voice said. "Come into Division, we have another Nikita on our hands. Imogen has escaped, and you are to help find her."

"I'm on my way," Birkhoff said after a split second of hesitation.

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><p>"Thank you," Imogen said to her contact, rubbing her neck as she did so.<p>

"Not a problem," he replied. "Do you have my payment?"

"I do," she said. "The drop will take place tonight at the park. Come alone."

"Always," he said. "You might want to watch it, since you only had the surgery to put in the kill chip and the tracker yesterday, and then had me take it out today…It's going to take a whole lot longer to heal."

"I'm a big girl," she replied. "I can take care of myself, don't you worry about me.

Imogen took off after that, not bothering to tell him goodbye. Now that she was definitely tracker and kill chip free, she made her way back to her own apartment. She had to use her spare key that was hidden around the entrance, seeing as she didn't have her normal one, but she eventually got inside. She would have to change the locks just to be safe; she didn't know where her old key was anymore; who knows who good have it.

But despite the fact that she had so much to do…Imogen just collapsed onto her couch and hugged her knees to her chest. She missed Birkhoff, but she knew that she had done the right thing, even if it hurt like hell.

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><p><strong>Please leave a review! :) :)<strong>


	27. Illusions

**A/N: Woo new chapter! XD She's completely out of Division in this one, though I am still giving flashes to the real episodes, whether Birkhoff is in a scene or not. That's just so that everyone understands how time is passing, so no one gets lost! However, I do add little bits and pieces into scenes, even if they are really tiny. I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter; it is set during the events of Alexandra, but stops before Echoes! Please leave a review!**

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><p>Imogen's apartment was littered with pages and pages of information. Every single one of her computers were up and running, whirring as they scoured the net and other information sources for anything that they could find. News clippings were pinned to a board, spanning the months that she had been trapped in Division. Imogen herself was sitting on one of those chairs with wheels, staring at the news clippings. While she had been in Division the trail had gone cold. Before she was in Division she had thought that the people she was tracking were just rogue cops, but that was looking like it was not the case.<p>

So she had to start at square one and throw out all of her preconceptions about these people. They were hard to find, but she had managed to gather bits and pieces. She was starting with the last few months, the time that she had been in Division, but Imogen was beginning to feel like that it wasn't going to be enough. She needed to build a complete picture of these people if she was going to discover who they really were and then subsequently, find them.

What Imogen was denying to herself was that another reason in burying herself in this work, tracking these people so viciously, was that she was trying to keep her mind off of Birkhoff. She hadn't allowed herself to dive back into the Division network—Shadow Net-, mainly because she didn't want to think about what she had done to Birkhoff.

She had no idea whether he was dead or alive, but her heart and her head told her that he was alive. He might be scarred, but he was okay. Imogen shook her head and got back to her work, flitting around her apartment to look at bits and pieces of the timeline of the last months.

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><p>"Your assignment is Dustin Zimmer, tech billionaire," Birkhoff said to Alex in Operations.<p>

"Why does he need the Internet to get a date?" Alex immediately asked.

"Likes the anonymity, avoids the gold-diggers… at least one blind date," he answered shortly. "By some amazing coincidence, this website is going to spit you out as a match."

"How do we know he'll get in touch with me?" she asked, sounding confused.

Birkhoff looked at her for a moment, then…

"Please," he scoffed.

Birkhoff paused for another moment, briefly thinking about Imogen and Division's failure to find her so far.

"Nerds like rejection," he said. "See, their thinking is, if she's interested in you… there must be something wrong with her."

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><p>Imogen put up many other boards next to her completed one and prepared to create a timeline for these people. She would do it almost solidly from the time of her father's murder to the present, and only filling in the important information from her early years before she left the United States. She didn't have enough room in her apartment for a day by day analysis, nor did her have enough time or boards to do it. All she wanted was to find out who these people were and why they killed her father… then she wanted to find them and get her revenge.<p>

She got so consumed in her work for the next couple of hours, phrases flashing through her mind at what seemed like lightning speed…

_Man found dead in hospital room, daughter gone missing…_

_Group of men seen dropping bodies at the side of the highway…_

"_We'll come for you, and your family."_

"_You're not safe here anymore."_

"_Gracie, I need you to trust me."_

"_Say goodnight little baaaaabyy."_

_Police garage blown up, men seen chasing a girl…_

_String of unsolved murders, men seen fleeing each scene: No leads._

Suddenly there was a noise by her computers, and Imogen whipped her head around. For a minute, she thought she saw Birkhoff standing in her apartment and she got up and walked towards him… but when she got there, no one was there… It was just an illusion; her mind was playing tricks on her. She shook her head and just left the room, collapsing onto her bed. Like she did a lot of the time in Division, Imogen stared up at the ceiling, this time her eyes were watering.

She didn't know why she had seen him so clearly like that, she knew that she missed him but that shouldn't have brought him to her like that. Imogen, as much as she liked Birkhoff, didn't want to see his image again in her apartment or anywhere as clearly again. She knew that she would inevitably think about him or dream about him, but she did not need holographic images!

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><p>Birkhoff entered his office, threw his laptop onto the couch and then collapsed onto the other side of it. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, clamping down and pulling at it. He kept his cool for the past few days, but whenever he was alone something would happen. He kept seeing Imogen in the training room, or lounging on this very couch in the middle of his office.<p>

He missed her, but he was still incredibly angry and he knew that neither emotion was going to disappear anytime soon. The question was which one would go first… he wasn't going to take bets on that.

During the last few days Percy had ordered a search for Imogen, and sent out most agents after her. He also had Birkhoff using his tech skills to try and figure out where she might have gone based on places that she accessed during her time at Division, to no luck. Not that it was for lack of trying on Birkhoff's part, there was just no information on her whatsoever. They had accessed her tracker and kill chip, but both signals were gone, which meant that Amanda's attempts to cancel her did no good. Even though Birkhoff was incredibly angry and upset with her, he didn't want her killed.

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><p>"So what's someone like you doing on a dating website?" Zimmer asked Alex.<p>

"My friends made me," Alex laughed. "I should really be asking you that."

"Well, I find computers are more impartial. Otherwise, it's easy to be distracted, you know… by…" Zimmer paused for a moment, and then abruptly continued. "Should I order some champagne?"

Alex looked a little nervous; as if she was thinking hard about something, then spoke. "Why don't we go dancing first?"

"Uh," Zimmer said nervously. "I didn't know you like dancing. You didn't list that on your profile."

"I did say that I'm full of surprises though," she said happily. "Come on!"

As the two of them made their way on the dance floor, Alex nearly bumped into a blond woman who looked familiar… But when she looked back, it wasn't who she thought that it was. The woman looked nothing like her, save for a similar hair colour.

After a little while dancing, Zimmer started to speak again.

"I really want to kiss you," Zimmer said, the nervousness evident in his voice.

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><p>Imogen was up in the middle of the night, unable to get any sleep. She was sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the massive window in her apartment, just staring out at the few stars and many lights that she could see.<p>

She didn't know how long she was sitting there for, just staring off into space, but she felt content for the first time since she had left. Something about this view calmed her down; she didn't exactly know why. She felt normal, for a time, and she decided that before dawn broke she would venture outside of her apartment, obviously wearing a disguise, and just… be a regular person for a little while.

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><p>Birkhoff grabbed his laptop and rushed out of his apartment; it was nearing daybreak and he didn't want to be late to Division that day. The night before… Alex had gone off the radar and he wasn't sure what had happened. They spliced together footage, a trick that he taught to the recruits himself. There were only three (suspected) candidates who could have done that; Alex herself, Nikita, or… Imogen. Now, he highly doubted that Imogen would have done that for one simple fact; she would not have forgotten to check the mirror. Everyone, meaning Michael, was up in arms about Alex's disappearance and Birkhoff didn't want to cause any more trouble at the moment. He had to lay low for a little while.<p>

Halfway there Birkhoff walked into a comic book store across from one of the best coffee shops in town; not his normal spot, but ever since he had gotten kidnapped by the CIA and Nikita at his other place, he was trying to avoid it.

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><p>Imogen was standing in her apartment looking at various wigs and accessories to disguise herself with. She used both hands to tie up her hair as best she could, and used bobby pins and hair spray on her bangs to clear her forehead. She slipped on a wig that was a much darker blond colour; this was different enough to not really look like her, but close enough so that if any piece of her natural hair fell out and were seen, it wouldn't look so obvious that she was wearing a disguise. Large aviator glasses went on next; she had been told constantly by her mom and dad that her eyes were unique; therefore, all the more reason to hide them today.<p>

She walked quite a few blocks before she decided to go in a random coffee shop. It seemed to be one of the few places that were open at the crack of dawn in this neighbourhood, so she decided to give it a try.

"Just a hot chocolate with skin milk please," she said to the barista, once she reached the front of the small lineup.

"Alright," the barista responded. "Are you sure you don't want anything else with that?"

"I'm sure," Imogen responded.

It was only a few minutes wait after she paid for her drink, and then she sat down at one of the tables close to the entrance. She sat there sipping her hot chocolate and got lost in her thoughts. Sure, she looked normal and was acting normal, but it was also some major production and very stressful to get out the door to do something like this.

Imogen never had a normal life for as long she could possibly remember, and she was seriously beginning to doubt that it would ever happen for her. She was now just constantly chasing after these people who wrecked her family, like it was the only thing that she had to really live for. Her sole purpose at the moment was to find them and take her revenge… and that was all that she was thinking about these days, aside from Birkhoff that is.

Speaking of Birkhoff, when Imogen walked out of the coffee shop and chucked her now empty cup in one of the garbage cans by the road, she thought that she saw him exit the store across the street from her. Suppressing a massive urge to run up to him, Imogen didn't know if he was being watched, or if he'd even want to see her after what she did.

She shook her head and quickly walked in the other direction, effectively avoiding contact with him for the time being. Imogen figured that he was one his way to Division, and if the hunt for her was still in full swing, he was probably one of the people set on that assignment.

"Too bad for them," she muttered to herself. "They won't ever find me."

A few hours later and Imogen was back in her apartment, once again working on her timeline. She was beginning to see some odd connections from the people she was hunting in her work, linking back to a few people that she recognized from somewhere. But where?

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><p><strong>oooooh who are they? ;) Leave a review if you want to find out more!<strong>


	28. Look After You

**A/N: So throughout this last month I've been writing my own novel for a novel writing challenge. 50K in a month. I crossed that finish line today, and I am nearly done writing the story. Which means that I will be able to dedicate even more time to this fanfic! Yay! I hope that everyone loves this chapter; I enjoyed writing it! Also, please review when you are done, I really want to hear feedback! One last thing… there is a poll on my profile about a possible sequel to this. Please participate in the poll. If there is not enough interest in a sequel… then I won't be writing one. Only two people have taken the time to answer it so far… so hurry up! There is a limited number of chapters in this story left, so time is running out!**

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><p>"Her name is Alex. You've done this for her before," Nikita said, walking into the main room of her loft. "I need an identity package Gustav, scrubbed clean."<p>

"Disappearing your friend…" Gustav said, eating an apple on the other side of the phone. "Again. Not a problem. How soon do you need this?"

"If I had my way, Alex would be on a plan to Kununurra by now," Nikita answered impatiently.

"Oh so…rush job," Gustav said, a smirk clearly evident through the tone of his voice. "When can you bring her by?"

"She's not available," Nikita quickly answered. "But I can't wait. I need that package ready to go as soon as she is."

"Nikita…" Gustav said, berating her. "I'm an excellent forger. But two things that I cannot forge… are fingerprints and passport photos."

"I have an idea of how to get that," Nikita said, pondering her options. "I gotta call you back though."

"Hey, I have to ask," Gustav said, nearly cutting Nikita off. "What exactly is she running from?"

"Let's just say…" Nikita said, pausing in the middle of her sentence. "I'm a little more worried about where she's headed."

Nikita was staring at the computer screen, paused at a video of Alex herself, and then slowly hung up the phone. She pressed play on the video, and watched it for what seemed like the millionth time.

"I am Alexandra Udinov," Alex said, a deadly tone to her voice. "Daughter of Nikolai Udinov. And this… is your reward."

She raised a gun and shot a man a few times; though he was not in the range of the camera.

Nikita stared at the screen as the video ended, wondering how Alex got to this point. She then stood up and left the loft; she had to get to Alex's apartment and find something with her fingerprints on it… and her Division created passport.

She was walking down the road outside of the loft when she saw something… no, someone, out of the corner of her eye. A head of shockingly blond hair kept flicking in and out of her vision. Nikita led whoever it was to an abandoned alleyway before speaking…

"You can come out now," she said. "I know that you are there."

"That was kind of the point," Imogen said, coming out of the shadows. "You're Nikita."

"Your point is what exactly?" Nikita said, folding her arms.

"You have a mole inside Division," she said, staying a safe distance away from Nikita.

"Correction, kid," Nikita said. "I used to. He was killed, or do you not remember that?"

"That's a lie actually," Imogen said, stepping a little closer to Nikita. "Your mole is Alex. You also have a shell program, code x899; a window into Division. You worked with her multiple times, told her about the exit through the silo. I know everything."

"So what?" Nikita said, going defensive. "You can't do anything about that. You are just a kid."

"I am not a fucking kid," Imogen said. "I haven't been for as long as I can bloody remember. But that's not the point… I'm not here to blow your cover. I really don't care or give a rat's ass what you two are up to. I need information."

"On Division? Not likely, I don't know much anymore," Nikita said, still defensive.

"No, not on Division," she said. "On these people."

Imogen held out a photo, the clearest one that she had, of a couple of the "cops" that she had confirmed were involved with her father's death.

"Where did you get this photograph?" Nikita asked, suddenly on edge,.

"I found it," she said. "I've been looking for information on these people, and others like them, for a long time now."

"I think that I know who these people are…" Nikita said, handing the photo back to Imogen.

"Then tell me," Imogen demanded.

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><p>After Nikita told her everything that she knew about the men in the photograph, Imogen raced back to her apartment; making sure that she wasn't being followed, all the while her mind racing with thoughts. She added the new information to her timeline, but then she just needed to clear her head before going any further. She had to get in touch with Birkhoff; but Imogen had no idea on how to do that yet. She could just hack into Division, but there would be no guarantees that Birkhoff would be the only one to see the information. She needed to formulate some sort of plan if she was going to be able to talk to time. Or at least, try to talk to him.<p>

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><p>While all of this was going on, Birkhoff was blissfully unaware of the seriousness and was just relaxing. Well, he was relaxing as much as he could, given the present circumstances. At least, he was doing this until Michael stormed into his office.<p>

"I need you to run a search," Michael demanded. "The name is Whitfield."

"Where do I know that from?" Birkhoff asked, after jumping at Michael's sudden entrance.

"I don't know," Michael said angrily. "Maybe you should run a search."

"You're always so pleasant when you're asking people to do you favours," Birkhoff said exasperatedly.

"It's only a favour when you have the option of saying no," Michael corrected him.

After a moment of searching and eye rolling, Birkhoff found what Michael wanted.

"Okay, here we go," Birkhoff said, rolling his shoulders back. "Operation Superdollar… It was a counterfeiting ring; spearheaded by the North Koreans. The Treasury department kept running into issues of diplomatic immunity, so we stepped in and took them out the assassin's way."

'"The operations was over three years ago. How did she…" Michael softly whispered.

"All targets were eliminated," Birkhoff said; a finality in his tone.

"Which one was Whitfield?" Michael immediately asked.

"Banker," Birkhoff said, leaning towards his screen again. "Whitfield was a money manager; he used his investment firm to launder the kizz-ash."

"Who'd we use?" Michael prompted.

"Roan took the diplomat," Birkhoff said, scrolling through the files. "Stephen had the chemist… Carlos killed the courier…"

After a split second of silence, Birkhoff opened the banker's, Whitfield's, file.

"And I don't need to look any further… that's why you're here," Birkhoff said. "Nikita eliminated Whitfield. Boy, no matter what you do, all roads seem to lead back to Nikki, don't they?"

_Just like all roads are starting to lead to Imogen for me…_ Birkhoff thought to himself.

"Even when they really shouldn't," Michael said.

Once again Birkhoff was left alone in his office. He spent the next couple of hours doing a whole bunch of little things, and much to his luck; Michael only interrupted him once more. He was supposed to run some sort of audio file about a phone call that Michael had with Alex after Operation Castle. He explained to Michael that according to his findings, Alex was not in her loft at the time of the call; mostly due to the flutter echo being off the charts.

"Carpets, drapes, furniture, even bodies; they all absorb sound," Birkhoff explained to Michael. "But wherever Alex was, most of the sound waves were being reflected back off of multiple hard surfaces at the approximate distances."

"She was in a big, empty room," Michael said questioningly.

"With a lot of windows, given the amount of reverb," Birkhoff confirmed.

He paused for a moment and then said, "The plot thickens. What was the plot exactly?"

Michael never answered his question, and left soon after he posed it to him. However, something perked Birkhoff's interest a couple hours after Michael left. HE had been noticing the network gradually slowing down, when a message popped up onto his screen.

_Birkhoff?_

He sat up straight after reading that; someone was talking to him and somehow he highly doubted that it was someone inside Division.

_Its okay, no one will ever be able to see this chat except me and you._

Birkhoff narrowed his eyes, suspicious of who it was… so he began to type back to them, asking that question.

**Who are you?**

_It's me… I left the charm._

**Where the hell have you been?**

_Trying to keep the both of us safe._

**You left.**

_I know._

**Why?**

_I had to; I need to know who killed my family._

**You could have told me this before; I would have helped you.**

_And let you put yourself into even more danger? I don't think so!_

**That wasn't your choice to make; it was mine and you made it for me.**

_I know that, and I am truly sorry._

**Why are you contacting me now?**

_I just had to check up on you… I had to make sure that you are alright._

**I'm fine.**

_Liar._

**Fine then. If you just have to know, I'm really hurting from this, are you happy?**

_Of course I'm not happy. If I could change the situation…well then I would. But what would you have done-_

The chat suddenly got cut off; Birkhoff had no connection whatsoever. He couldn't back into contact with her, it was crippled. Furious, he ran network diagnostics and came up with the problem; Michael. He walked out of his office with a tablet computer in hand, intent of giving Michael a piece of his mind.

"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded, storming into the room where Michael was.

"I needed a file from the archives," Michael feebly explained.

"No, you're running every phone we've ever recorded through audio forensics," Birkhoff said angrily, shoving the tablet in Michael's face. "Looking for a spatial match to your Alex call."

"How did you-" Michael started.

"You're crippling my network! Half of Division can't get email," Birkhoff lied (though it could be true), shoving Michael and his chair away from the desk.

"Look," Michael said. "Finding Alex wasted like that… made me think. What if she was promoted too soon? And she's out there with all this pressure… What is she can't cope?"

"You think the other night wasn't her first fall off the wagon?" Birkhoff asked, calming down slightly.

"I don't know. Has she been using drugs? Out partying?" Michael said. "I need to find out how much trouble she's been in, and if we can fix it before Percy finds out… you know him."

"Cancel first, ask questions later," Birkhoff said, really beginning to realize why Imogen had to run. "Dude… You need to stop getting so personally invested in recruits; it never ends well for you. Also, it's getting kind of creepy. Alex is not Nikita."

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><p>Imogen was cut off from Birkhoff, and though she tried to get back into contact with him; nothing was working. She didn't know if someone caught him or not…. Or if something was wrong with his network. She doubted the bit about his network; it was really well done. If something had gone wrong, it would probably be because of something that someone else was doing.<p>

She knew that she couldn't stick around, so she left Birkhoff a short message, to be delivered whenever the network was back up and running. Imogen then got back up and went over to her timeline of the people that she was hunting. She was closer, just needing a few more things to complete it, find everyone… and then she just had to attack. Sadly, the last few bits would be extremely hard to find; not mention it would be time consuming. Maybe she should send a warning first... maybe...

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><p>"This is a private subnet," Birkhoff explained to Michael. "Away from the rest of Division traffic. Authorization key ends at midnight, so whatever you do or do not find; it needs to happen before then."<p>

He left Michael alone after that and rushed back to his office, hoping that Imogen was still around to talk to. To his great disappointment however, there was only one message on the screen.

_Don't try to look for me… I love you and I'm sorry._

_**{user offline} **_

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><p><strong>:O oooooohh! Interesting, yes? Please leave a review and participate in the poll on my profile!<strong>_**  
><strong>_


	29. Catching Smoke

**A/N: I just thought that I would inform everyone that after this chapter, there are only SIX chapters left to this story. The number has changed a bit today, but this is the final number. Which means that everyone really needs to participate in the poll letting me know if they want a sequel or not. If not enough people answer yes in the poll, I will not write it. I am going to be in university this year, so my time will be limited. This is why I am only doing it if there is enough interest. I cannot stress this enough. I can see how many are reading this story and how many have alerted it. If you don't want a sequel, feel free to answer no in the poll. Just please, let me know! Anyways, I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter, and reviews once they are done.**

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><p>"I bought them a house, Elizabeth and Hayley," Michael said, knowing that Nikita was walking towards him. "One night Lizzy and I just started flipping through a housing catalog. Lizzy saw this house in Hawaii, and her eyes just lit up."<p>

Nikita stopped next to Michael, not saying a word.

"So I tore out the page, and without telling her, I started saving up," he continued. "Before you knew it, I had enough money for the down payment. When I called the realtor and he said the place was still available, I nearly jumped out of my chair."

He stopped for a moment; as if he was contemplating whether or not to continue… then he started speaking again.

"My plan was to fly them there for vacation, and tell them that that house was a rental," he said, almost choking on his words. "And I know on the last day of vacation, Hayley would just… look up at me and tell me it's time to go home. But I would look back down at her, and I'd tell her, 'we are home'. Percy took that away from me. He made me into this. I'm going to go into his office… and I'm going to shoot him."

"If Percy goes down," Nikita said suddenly. "This country will never recover. Do you remember telling me that?"

"I don't care," Michael insisted.

"I don't believe you, because you're stronger than that," Nikita said, looking at him. "You're the strongest person I've ever met. You… do the things that other people won't do. You sacrifice and you dedicate your life, to people you know are innocent. I don't think you're capable of not caring."

Nikita walked a couple of steps to stand in front of Michael before continuing.

"We will find the rest of the black boxes, and then we will kill Percy. And he will not be able to do this to anyone ever again," she said.

"I lied to you," Michael said all of a sudden. "I didn't get the locations. I was coming here to… double-cross you."

There was a long minute of complete silence, then "Well… you didn't". After that was said, Nikita just calmly walked away, leaving Michael standing in the snow.

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><p>"Did you think about what we discussed?" Percy asked Michael seriously.<p>

"Yes," was the only response.

"And?" Percy prompted.

"I'm with you one hundred percent," Michael said, looking Percy directly in the eyes.

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><p><em>A few days later…<em>

"So, is she working with you?" Michael asked Nikita.

"Who?" Nikita asked.

"Imogen," Michael answered.

"Oh. No, but she has contacted me," Nikita confessed.

"Why did she leave?" he asked.

"She was in Division?" Nikita said confused. "I didn't know that part."

"Yes, she was," Michael said. "She was very good too, well, with computers for the most part."

"Like Birkhoff?" Nikita said, smiling.

"Like Birkhoff," Michael confirmed.

"Well, I have no idea why she might have left Division," Nikita said. "No… Actually, when I saw her during the time that Alex was being interrogated… she seemed extremely interested in this photo that she shoved in my face."

"Do you have this photo?" Michael asked.

"No, she took it back," Nikita said. "But I can tell you who was in it."

"Who?" Michael asked.

"Someone we both know," Nikita said.

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><p>Over the past week, mission after mission kept failing. Percy was getting furious; he had no idea how she was doing this. At first he had assumed that it was Nikita, but then after his men (and women) kept coming back with injuries… he rethought it. Each and every single one of them had the same injury; and no one had seen their attacker.<p>

He put everyone available on this task, including Birkhoff, Michael, Alex, and Amanda. No one was coming up with anything; only more attacks. It seemed like this person, whoever it was, was also targeting Gogol. The one thing that Percy was reluctant to do, and thus refused to do it, was ask for Gogol's help in catching this… freedom fighter.

"It's like catching smoke sir," Alex said. "There is no trace left at any of the sites… nothing."

"Has no one found anything?" Percy asked furiously.

"Nothing," Michael said.

"Amanda?" he asked.

"No, nothing," Amanda shook her head.

Everyone he had assigned to this project was inside Operations. Including Birkhoff, who was typing on one of the computers doing who knows what. Suddenly all of the computer screens changed to a black screen. Words started to appear on the screen…

_Division…_

_Gogol…_

_You've been warned._

After the last words appeared, it was only a couple seconds until an image was splashed across the screen. Percy and the rest of them looked closer and found that the image was of a ghost… a cartoon like one, but it was nevertheless a ghost.

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><p>Imogen lay back in her chair in the middle of her apartment. Over the last week, ever since Nikita had told her about the men in the photograph she had just lost it. She felt like she was losing her touch because, though she had been trying to find out who or what the connection was, nothing was working.<p>

It was like her mind had gone AWOL and there was nothing that she could do about it. Luckily she managed to make herself as invisible as possible so that no one could find her unless she wanted them to.

Speaking of that, Imogen was starting to think that Nikita might have pointed her in the wrong direction with that photograph. If she was not able to wrap her head around it soon… well, she would just have one more person to harass.

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><p>Michael, though he had told Percy that he had no idea who was causing these problems for Division, was not really telling him the truth and neither was he really helping in the search for the person. In fact, what he wanted to do was find the person himself and recruit them to work with himself and Nikita. The downside? It was highly unlikely that they would agree to something like that, and since they seemed to be a loose cannon (despite their amazing ability to stay concealed)… well Michael was hesitant about it. He hadn't mention his idea to Nikita and probably never would if he wasn't all for it.<p>

Shaking his head Michael made his way out of Division and got into his car, and started to drive towards Nikita's place. ON his way there he thought that he saw a familiar head of shockingly blond hair staring at him through a high window, but the next time that he looked it was gone.

"So much for not going crazy," he muttered.

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><p>Birkhoff was in his apartment, sitting on the floor and staring out the window; watching the rain come down in buckets. At Division that day there was a message on the computers, something that he was unable to prevent from happening. At first he had no idea what was going on, but as soon as he saw the imprint of the ghost on the screen his mind snapped back to Imogen.<p>

She had obviously gotten some leads, but what shocked him was where they were leading her. No one at Division knew who she was when they recruited her, and they still didn't. So how could they have been involved?

He was reminded of Nikita and what he told her about trying to take down Division all those months ago…

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><p>"<em>Congratulations Birkhoff, you found me," Nikita said, and then she picked up a needle and a vial of clear liquid.<em>

"_What is that?" he asked. "Truth serum?"_

"_It's pain desensitizer," Nikita said, inserting the needle into the vial. "I don't want you passing out on me."_

"_So, what, you going to torture me? Is that it?" he asked angrily._

"_Not if you tell me what I need to know," she informed him calmly._

"_Well, I always told you, you were hot," he said smugly. "You know that."_

"_I want access to Division's network," she said, interrupting him. "Log ins… passwords."_

"_Bitch, just skip to the part where you kill me," he spat._

"_No," she said, and then whacked him across the head with a pistol._

"_Seriously, do it!" he said. "Because if I give you those codes, Percy will kill me!"_

"_Shut up!" she said, pressing the gun against the side of his head._

"_What do you want with the network anyways?" he asked, once Nikita had lowered the gun. "It's not like it was any help to us finding where you've been hiding out."_

"_I'm not hiding anymore," she said shortly. _

"_Then what are you doing? You're not trying to come at us are you?" he asked incredulously. "Man, Nikki… Nikki, you're insane!"_

"_Don't call me Nikki," she snapped._

"_Then don't call me Nerd," he countered. "Remember you used to call me that? Patch me through to Michael, Nerd. This computer's busted, fix it, nerd. Place ain't the same without you, babe."_

"_Then let's burn it down," she suggested in a deadly tone._

"_You seriously think you can burn down Division all on your own?" he said._

"_Who says I'm on my own?" she asked._

"_So you playing for the other side now?" he said. "Well, if you got such big guns on your side backing you up, what do you need me for?"_

"_Well, because they may be able to get me the Intel I need, but I know you can get it," she answered._

"_Well then, we're right back where we started. Just understand," he said. "If you do this, you're going to have to kill your way through a whole lot of people you know, starting with me. Nikki."_

* * *

><p>If Imogen was trying to do the same thing… well then, Birkhoff was really worried about her. They had found Nikita's mole and killed him; Birkhoff knew that at some point, whether it was tomorrow, in a week, or in a few months… Percy would somehow find a way to track her down and put her through a whole world of pain before finally killing her.<p>

She had given him strict instructions not to impede Division's progress as it would start to draw negative attention towards him, but Birkhoff was not sure if he could do it anymore. He life was going to be at stake, and as much as he valued his safety… His mind was just scrambled; he didn't know what he wanted to do.

Imogen was beyond angry. She still could not put together the whole picture, and thinking about these disgusting people all of the time was beginning to make her feel sick to her stomach. She collapsed on the floor of her bedroom, close to tears.

"I just want it to stop," she cried out. "Dad, why is this happening? I just want a normal life and something you did has ruined that!"

Deep down she didn't really believe that it was her father's fault that all of this had happened… but she needed someone to blame it on. Blaming it on the people who destroyed her family was satisfying, but she just knew that… well without the link she wasn't going to close that door any time soon. So, much like mother, she turned her anger towards her Dad even though she knew that he didn't hear it, nor did her deserve it.

"Fuck it all," she said, throwing a pillow at the wall. "I cannot stand this! GAH!"

She was freaking out, sure, but for some reason there was a little voice in the back of her mind that was telling her that something was wrong and she was blowing it all out of proportion. Shaking that voice away, she didn't want to think about something messing up her plans, she decided that maybe it was time… Maybe it was time for her to go back to the house where her family had last been together. She could make it there in about a day, but would probably have to either stay there or drive the entire night on her way back here.

"Doesn't matter," she told herself. "I need answers. This time… I think that I know where to find them."

* * *

><p><strong>Please review. The lack of reviews is really disappointing considering how many are reading this story. I don't ask for much, just a review and for you to go and answer the poll in my profile!<strong>


	30. Hometown Glory

**A/N: Another chapter! And, since I am in a good mood today, there may be another one posted a little later today. You'll just have to wait and see. So, I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter. Also, I have an important author's not at the end. **

**Disclaimer: Thought it was time for another. Don't own Nikita!**

* * *

><p>Imogen shoved clothes into a duffel bag on top of an assortment of weapons including pepper spray and guns. She grabbed food from her fridge and put it all into one small cooler. She grabbed her file folder that was empty at the moment (she didn't want to be caught with any information), and then headed down to her car with everything that she would need for this "mission". She had gathered all of the information that she could; and she still could not put the pieces together. Imogen then had a brainwave and realized that she was going to have to make her way back to her childhood home. Well, one of them anyways; the safest one. She had to rely on the fact that her father would have hidden some sort of information in the house somewhere. Otherwise, why else would they have been after him? He had to have had something on them; maybe he was threatening to expose them? She had no idea, but she was determined to find out.<p>

Her head told her that she need not worry herself with these trivial things and that she could just go on chasing these people until she succeeded. But, she knew deep inside that it wouldn't fix everything. She had to finish her father's work for him; but this time she would succeed where he failed.

"They have no idea who they have messed with," she said to herself, pulling out of a parking garage.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Birkhoff," Michael said, walking into Division.<p>

"Hey, Michael," he responded.

"I wanted to review some of our internal security protocols," Michael explained. "Do you have a moment?"

"Not really, though that does sound like a good time," Birkhoff said, eyes focused on the computer screen.

"What's going on?" Michael asked.

"Problem on Emerald Eagle," Birkhoff explained. "Our little corporate heist job's gone sideways."

"What went wrong?" Michael immediately asked.

"That's what we'd like to find out," Birkhoff said. "It should have been easy in, easy out… but a couple of overachieving security guards decided to play hero. One agent was killed; two wounded. Here they come now."

"Jaden was on this mission?" Michael said incredulously, looking as a group of agents exited the elevator.

"A provisional," Amanda said. "She was supposed to graduate like Alex here. Alex, I want you to debrief her, and file an after-action report by the end of the day."

"You want me to debrief Jaden?" Alex asked.

"Effective interview techniques should be part of every agent's skill set," Amanda said.

"You do realize she hates me right?" Alex said in a sickly sweet voice.

"A certain level of antagonism can be useful in this situation," Amanda said. "Anything that puts the subject off balance works to the questioner's advantage. You're in the perfect position to help me get to the truth."

* * *

><p>Imogen pulled into the driveway of a house; it was rundown and overgrown with grass but it was still standing. Dirt covered the walls of the house that were once a brilliant white colour… the wood of the deck was beginning to rot.<p>

"It was home," she said aloud, getting out of the car.

It was Imogen's childhood home; if you could even call it that. She did not remember living in that house, but that was probably because she was only a newborn baby at the time. If her father had saved any of the information that he gathered, it would be there.

She slowly opened the door, using the key that she had attached to her necklace. Imogen stepped inside, making sure to close the door behind her. She began to search the house from bottom to top, pressing against the floorboards and the walls in case there was some hidden trigger. She spent hours going over the basement and then the main floor, but nothing was coming up.

She sat down on the couch and put her hand in her hands. This was her last hope, and if there was nothing here… well she was out of luck. A part of her didn't want to give up, but she wasn't sure if this was worth it.

"Maybe he never hid anything here," she muttered. "Shit."

* * *

><p>"Did you break into Percy's office?" Amand asked, walking behind Alex, who was hooked up to an FMRI.<p>

"No," Alex said shortly.

"Was the thumbprint pad yours?" Amanda asked.

"No," Alex answered.

"Did you know about the air vents?" Amanda asked.

"No," Alex said.

"Lie, lie, and…" Birkhoff was looking at a picture of Alex's brain on the monitor… "Lie."

"You see, unlike the polygraph, you can't fool the FMRI by regulating your peripheral nervous system," Amanda explained to Alex. "Alex, two weeks ago I recommended to Percy that you be cancelled. Truth. He didn't think that I had enough evidence to support my conclusion. But the evidence is getting clearer, don't you think?"

"Alright, I lied," Alex confessed. "But it was to protect somebody."

"Who?" Amanda asked.

"Thom," Alex answered. "Thom was in love with me, and he made plans for us… plans I couldn't be involved in."

"You and Thom had an affair?" Amanda asked, surprised.

"No," Alex said. "He wanted to, but… I didn't love him, and that hurt him. I didn't want to hurt him anymore."

Amanda looked towards Birkhoff, silently asking if Alex was telling the truth.

"It's a little wobbly, but the emotions are strong," Birkhoff said. "She's telling the truth."

"Did you break into Percy's office?" Amanda asked, turning back to Alex.

"Yes, but I wasn't alone," she replied.

"So Thom was involved?" Amanda said.

"He knew about it," Alex responded.

"Did you give the thumbprint to Thom?" Amanda asked.

"No," Ales said shortly. "I don't know how he got it."

"Were you ever in the air vents?" Amanda asked.

"Yes," Alex said. "The night Nikita escaped Division. I knew her mole used them to plant the explosives. That's how I met Thom in the hallway outside. That's why I had to kill him."

After a moment of looking at the picture of her brain, Birkhoff spoke. "She aced it. It's all true."

"I am very disappointed," Amanda said. "In Michael."

"What? Why?" Alex said, sounding a little panicked.

"Michael was Thom's supervisor," Amanda explained. "Recommended him for agent status, oversaw his graduation. If what you say about Thom is true, I'm sure Michael was aware of it. I just need to find out why Michael didn't say something sooner."

* * *

><p>Imogen had finally pulled herself off of the couch and made her way to the staircase that led to the top floor of the house. Her footsteps seemed unnaturally loud as she slowly climbed the stairs.<p>

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

The sound echoed in her ears, mimicking the pounding of her heart. When she reached the top, she was about to turn the handle to enter her parents' bedroom, until something made her turn around. Across the hall was another door, with colourful, wooden letters in different shades of purple spelling out her name. It was her room… her baby room. She slowly walked towards the door and then turned the handle, letting the door open.

Once inside, she took a moment to look around. Everything was clean and in place, like nothing had ever happened. The only indicator that something was wrong or different was the layer of dust coating most things in the room.

Imogen walked towards the crib, letting her fingers touch the stuffed animals that lay inside it. She vaguely remembered some of these; clutching onto them with one hand… Imogen was remembering little bits and pieces of her life before she was on the run. Suddenly, Imogen knew where her father had hidden the information that she was looking for.

"Clever," she said to herself, nervously laughing.

* * *

><p>Amanda walked back into her office, Birkhoff trailing behind her. She had just gotten off the phone with Michael, asking him about Alex's accusations.<p>

"You can go," she said to Alex. "Michael backed you up."

A look of relief flooded Alex's face and she started to make her way towards the door.

"But Alex, you still lied," Amanda said.

"I know. I was protecting Thom," she said.

"In the future, you'd do well to protect yourself," Amanda advised.

"Are you still recommending me for cancellation?" Alex asked.

Amanda tilted her head and took a deep breath in, contemplating the question.

"No," she replied.

Alex then turned around and walked out of Amanda's office. Once she was out of the office and out of earshot, Birkhoff looked up from the FMRI.

"Lie," he said.

* * *

><p>Imogen took all of the stuffed animals out of her crib and lifted out the cushion lining the bottom. She flipped the cushion on its side and, just as she had expected, there was a line of stitches where there should not have been anything. She took the knife out of her boot and carefully ripped the stitches apart.<p>

Once she was finished, she stuck her fingers inside the hole that she made, and they almost immediately connected with an envelope that was actually quite large. Imogen knew that she had found exactly what she was looking for, though she replaced the cushion, letting the envelope sit against the stuffed animals.

For some reason Imogen started to get nervous and made the decision that she should probably make her way back to her apartment. She could open the envelope there and then examine its contents. She had been waiting a very long time to find it: Imogen knew that she could wait a little while longer.

Imogen grabbed the envelope, and after a split second decision, the stuffed animals as well. She had nothing from her childhood; no pictures, old clothes… she needed something to hold onto; something that would remind her about it. She threw everything into the back seat of her car, save for the envelope which she put in the passenger's seat. She quickly backed out of the driveway, speeding down the road and headed home.

* * *

><p>"Hello?" Nikita said.<p>

"Hey, where are you?" Alex asked, walking in the middle of a park.

"I'm, in London," Nikita answered. "But I'm coming home."

"We got to talk," Alex said urgently. "Amanda recommended my cancellation. Luckily Percy wasn't convinced."

"We need to move up the timetable on your extraction," Nikita said.

"Good, I nearly bought it today; Amanda had me dead to rights," Alex said. "Here's what's weird. Michael saved my ass. Do you think he's planning something?"

Before Nikita could answer, a car whooshed past Alex; she would have been hit if she didn't step back. It looked like a dark coloured vehicle, but Alex wasn't sure. What she was sure of however, was that there was a blond woman sitting in the driver's seat.

"Alex, we need to talk about Michael," Nikita said.

* * *

><p><em>Open it.<em>

_Just open it._

_You'll never know unless you rip it open._

A voice in the back of Imogen's head was egging her on; telling her to just rip open the envelope and look inside. It was staring at her, leaning against an empty bowl on the counter. Imogen blinked, wishing that everything would just go away but there it was; still there.

Now that she actually had answers within her reach, she was getting scared. What if it turned out that her father was a bad person, and deserved those people coming after him? Even though Imogen knew somewhere that that scenario was not the case, she couldn't help but think about the possibility in her mind over and over again.

_Open it._

She didn't know how long she sat there staring at the envelope for, but finally Imogen just grabbed it with one hand. She picked up a pair of scissors form the counter, and started to carefully cut open the envelope. She pulled out the contents and spread the papers and photographs out onto her counter. Imogen just stared, her mouth dropping open, at the information that lay before her. She never knew that it was this big or serious.

"What did you get yourself into Dad?" she breathed, picking up the first photograph.

She had found the link, and boy was she pissed.

* * *

><p><strong>Right…I just wanted to say that I am going to stop asking for reviews andor answers to my poll for the remainder of this story. But, I still want them, don't get me wrong. They make me think that; yes ok….my efforts are actually appreciated. So it's up to you guys now. If I do not get a decent number of people responding to the poll by the time it closes (haven't decided when yet, probably a week or so to go.), I will NOT be writing a sequel. Like I've said before, I am going to have a lot on my plate come September, and I am only going to put a sequel on top of that if there is interest. So for the very last time, please review my story and please respond to the poll I have set up. Thank you to those who have done both and those who review all of the time.**


	31. All That I'm Living For

**A/N: Yay! Two updates in one day! Hope everyone enjoys this chapter! Only four more after this one!**

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><p>"What if it killed me too? Alex asked. "We're supposed to blow up the lab right? What if we faked my death on the mission?"<p>

"That is too risky," Michael said. "Nikita, that is too risky. Oh. So that's how you want to do this. In the middle of an operation, with Division monitoring?"

"Kina makes it sweeter," Nikita said. "Not the point. Listen, if she blows up on foreign soil, it's not like Percy can send a bunch of cleaners to sift through the rubble. She'd die a hero too. All we're talking about is altering the exfil. Could work."

"As long as the original mission gets finished," Michael said seriously.

"So we can do it," Alex said.

"Yeah," Michael said quietly.

"Yes. As long as we don't step on Division's toes," Nikita said, and then turned to Michael. "Right?"

* * *

><p>Her father had somehow found a way to cripple both Gogol and Division. This caused Imogen to realize that it meant that he was the link, and the chances of both organizations working together were very slim.<p>

But what really caught Imogen's interests was the part about Division. It wasn't Percy who was the one who called the hit on her father. She noticed that, from her father's notes that Amanda seemed to pop up the most often.

"That's weird," she muttered. "I thought Percy ran Division."

She kept flipping through the photographs and other articles, but there was very little on Percy. It seemed like he was, at some level at least, being controlled by another organization only known in her father's notes as Oversight. Whether they were connected with Gogol or not was unclear, but their connection with Division was crystal clear. The only real issue was that Imogen had no way of getting to them; not even getting close.

"Maybe I should start small," she muttered.

Even though she realized that this was probably the smartest idea, Imogen still leafed through the papers. Most of it was new information that she found, but there were some bits and pieces that she had already found out.

The most shocking information however, was contained in a much smaller envelope. When Imogen carefully ripped it open and unfolded the piece of paper, she immediately recognized the handwriting. Her eyes went wide as she read the paper, hands going to her open mouth. She dropped the paper to the floor; she could not believe what she had just read.

* * *

><p>"Alex, this is Michael back in Operations," Michael said, sending information to Alex through her comm unit. "Report. Are the charges set?"<p>

"All charges are set," Alex said.

"But you're still in the lab," Michael said. "Get out of there."

"So I should proceed," Alex started to say. "According to plan."

"Proceed as planned," Michael confirmed.

"What is this, spy 101?" Birkhoff asked. "Just do it."

"Wait, we have a problem," Alex said, trying to sound panicked. "I'm stuck in the lab. I see other guards; I think I'm trapped!"

Suddenly Alex stopped in the middle of raising the bomb disguised as a tube of lipstick.

"Operations, do you hear that?" she asked, her voice filling the room.

Michael looked at Birkhoff for a moment, confused.

"I don't know what she's talking about dude," he said seriously. "I can't hear anything."

"No, we do not," Michael told Alex through the comm. "What's going on?"

"Stand by," was the response. "I think it's Jaden. Her comm has been damaged."

Alex, Michael presumed, kept listening to what was going on.

"Jaden, do you read me?" he heard her say. "Are you in the lab? Jaden, do you read me?"

Michael could not hear anything for a moment, until he heard Alex speak again.

"Can you get out of there?" Alex asked.

"Alex, what is going on?" Michael asked, a note of confusion in his voice.

"Jaden's been captured," she responded.

"What?" Michael said in disbelief. "Alex, report!"

"I'm going to save her," Alex said.

* * *

><p>It was Amanda. She was the one who was completely ripping apart everything in Imogen's life. Well, for the most part, Percy was involved to some extent it looked like. But there it was, as clear as day. Imogen's father had been a part of Oversight, until something went wrong. Her mind was still spinning with this shock to her whole being, so she wasn't really putting the details together. She couldn't speak; all Imogen could do was blink every so often. She kept staring ahead, her eyes glazing over with her thoughts.<p>

"No," was the one and only sound that Imogen made over the next little while.

She repeated this word over and over as if it would change things; make it all disappear into nothingness, like it never even happened. But it had, and Imogen was unbelievably angry. Once she was able to collect some of her thoughts, she stood up and completed the timeline that she had been creating, seething as she did so.

* * *

><p>Michael was in Percy's office for a debriefing with Alex and Jaden. He didn't have to worry for any reason at all; the mission was a success, and he would be going home soon. However, Birkhoff was still in his office for no apparent reason. He was worried; he had not heard a single word from Imogen for a little while now, and that made him nervous.<p>

He couldn't help but wonder what she was up to, and whether he'd ever get the chance to actually speak to her face to face ever again. He doubted it, since if they were caught together there would be even more shit than if she was still with Division. It kind of made him want to run; but he owed Percy for keeping him out of jail. And besides, Birkhoff didn't think that he would be able to pull off what Imogen, and Nikita before her, managed to do. If he tried, Birkhoff was sure that he would be caught and then cancelled. There was no question about it. His skills lay in the area of computers, and computers alone. There was a big reason why he hid behind a desk all the time; he couldn't handle the fieldwork.

* * *

><p>"Anya Weimer," Percy said. "I would love to get my hands on her. Been hunting her for years and then the Swiss capture her. Really, the Swiss?"<p>

"Sounds like she slipped up," Michael commented.

"Well, maybe she wasn't that great," Percy said. "You two on the other hand, were outstanding. Your country thanks you, and I thank you. Good work Alex; you have a great future here."

Once he and Michael were alone in the room, Percy turned towards him.

"They were definitely the right people for the job, don't you think?" he said.

"Definitely sir, they both did really well," Michael replied.

"I'm glad that we got the nerve toxin out of the way," Percy lied. "It would have been a massive problem to deal with. Not something anyone was prepared for."

"It's a good thing that we got a hold of the Intel then," Michael said.

"Exactly," Percy said. "You can go now; there is nothing else that needs to be covered."

Michael nodded and then left the room silently. A few minutes after he did, and Percy had another visitor. Percy held the mission details in his hands as Jaden was in front of him; face showing no emotion.

"You know what this is," he said. "Alex's report on the mission."

"What does it say?" Jaden asked in a monotone voice.

"Mm, it's…" Percy paused for a moment. "actually very complimentary."

"That's sweet," Jaden said. "I left this out of my report… like you asked."

Jaden held something out to Percy; it was the nerve toxin.

"I always did love your initiative," Percy said. "Congratulations Jaden; you're an agent now."

* * *

><p>Imogen walked silently into Nikita's loft. She had spent some time debating on whether or not she should go inside, but then she realized that she wasn't going to be able to do all of this on her own. She would get some of the low level people by herself; the ones who actually carried out the act of killing her father and mother. But, Imogen knew that she was going to need some help taking out the big guns. Nikita could have Percy, Imogen didn't care as much about getting him, but she needed to get Amanda.<p>

As she was walking in, Imogen heard voices, more than one, so she hid in the shadows where no one would see her even when they walked out.

"I don't know if I am going to stay inside Division," Alex said. "But I am going to stay in this fight. Our fight. You know where to find me."

Imogen could hear Alex coming, but thankfully she wasn't noticed. Even though Alex was on Nikita's side; Imogen didn't trust her. She just got a bit of a bad feeling and that was never good.

A few minutes passed and Imogen was considering coming out and talking to Nikita… but then there was another voice talking; Michael's.

"She has a right to decide for herself," he said to Nikita.

"That's what scares me," Nikita confessed.

"So it got a little rough," Michael said.

"Yeah, but it was worth it," Nikita replied.

"Are you telling me you think there's a good side to Division?" Michael asked.

"No," Nikita immediately denied. "Not unless you're running it one day."

"Or you are," Michael countered.

"Ohh, I like windows," Nikita said. "You needed this Michael. It was a good victory."

"It was," Michael whispered, Imogen nearly missing what he said.

"And you got to boss me around again," Nikita remarked.

"Not that you listened," Michael replied.

"Just like old times," Nikita said.

"Not old times," Michael corrected. "New times."

Imogen waited for a moment, but then she realized Michael wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon. Knowing this, she slowly stepped out of the shadows and cleared her throat.

"Nikita?" she called. "I need to speak with you."

The reaction from the both of them was so fast that Imogen actually had trouble thinking. Once Nikita saw who it was, she didn't look on the offensive anymore; but Michael did.

"Cool your jets Michael," Imogen said. "Not here to cause any ruckus."

"It's okay Michael," Nikita said. "It's fine."

Michael seemed to relax only slightly; the edginess was still evident.

"What do you want?" he asked harshly.

"Well, I was here to speak to Nikita," Imogen said. "But I'm guessing from the looks of things you are on her side now…So I guess that I am here to talk to you as well."

"What do you need to talk about?" Nikita said.

"I need your help," Imogen replied. "You know that photo that I showed you?"

Nikita nodded in response.

"Well, I've pretty much put everything together," she said. "But there's one problem."

"And what's that?" Michael asked, beginning to sound intrigued.

"I can take down the little guys; the ones who really carried out the orders," Imogen explained. "I need help in taking out the ones who actually sent the orders down."

"What do we get out of this?" Michael asked.

"I'll help you guys, and Alex too I suppose," Imogen said. "In taking down Division. It just so happens that our missions kind of intertwine in certain areas; even if it is not exact."

"Who's your target then?" Nikita asked.

"In Division?" Imogen asked.

"Yeah," Nikita said.

"Let me show you," Imogen answered, pulling out a single photograph. "She is."

It was a picture of Amanda.

Both Nikita and Michael were completely shocked.

"Wouldn't it have been Percy?" Michael immediately asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "That's what I thought. But I'm not sure on the details; there may still be more to it than what I know."

"Are you sure about this?" Nikita asked. "We should vet this information."

"I'm positive," Imogen said firmly.

"How can you be?" Michael countered.

"Because I am," Imogen bit back. "I know my sources are reliable."

"Who are they?" Nikita asked.

"Sorry, I won't give that information to you," Imogen said. "I just need to know one thing; do we have a deal?"


	32. Quasimodo

**A/N: I hope that everyone loves this chapter, and remember… After this, there are only 3 chapters left of Source Code! *cue music* XD Enjoy! Just so everyone knows, this is the last chapter not associated with an episode. The final three chapters are all episode related... the episodes being: Glass Houses, Betrayals, and Pandora.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Imogen had just gotten back from having a long talk with Michael and Nikita about her plan. They seemed to be very hesitant and unwilling to let her do most of it on her own, but after telling them that she truly needed to do as much as she could by herself, and explaining why that was… they understood. Imogen shared a lot of things with them during the long talk, but the one thing that she didn't was about Birkhoff. Imogen wasn't sure why she didn't say anything… well that was a lie. She didn't completely trust either of them, and she wanted to make sure that if someone was going to go down, then it was only going to be her and not Birkhoff.<p>

"Maybe this was a mistake," she muttered under her breath as she stared at the boards that she had created. "No, no, you have to do this."

There was no way that Imogen would be able to move on from this point in her life if she didn't go through with her mission. Everything was laid out crystal clear for her: both Division and Gogol were after her father…but only one destroyed her family. She was still unbelievably furious with both organizations; and she would destroy each of them, but she had to set her priorities.

On some level, Imogen always knew that it had to have been Division. Well, Amanda specifically. She loved to play with people's minds inside Division and make them feel like they were trapped… controlling their fears, pumping them with drugs or encasing them in boxes. There were only a few kinds of people in the world who could have a mind so sick that, instead of truly going for the man they wanted to affect… would go after the wife and child. Amanda was quite clearly one of them; she reveled in the pain, the hurt, and the fear that she caused people.

Imogen knew that she could handle the greatest fear that she had; the fear of small spaces. Amanda caused it sure, but she was now able to control it so now it really wasn't the thing that she was the most afraid of.

"Birkhoff," she said to herself.

In that moment, alone in her apartment with only two lights on, she realized what had taken the space of her claustrophobia. It was Birkhoff. She wasn't afraid of him exactly, but what could happen between them. She wanted things to work but she was also seeing so many things in the way of what could be. Nothing was going to go well for them until this was fixed; until their lives were a lot more normal than they were now.

As Imogen was sitting on her couch, staring at the board and thinking these thoughts, something stirred in her stomach. A nauseous feeling started to rise, and though she tried to quell that feeling it kept bubbling up and she could no longer ignore it. She got up quickly from the couch and walked as fast as she could towards the bathroom and proceeded to puke a couple times. It was a disgusting feeling, and taste for that matter, but she got through it. Imogen felt the intense need to just get the taste out of her mouth, so she made her way over to the fridge and looked inside. There were many drinks in there, like a couple different kinds of alcohol, juice, milk… but in the end she just settled on a large bottle of water.

She took a few moments to just drink her water and collect her scattered thoughts, before going back to stand in front of her boards once more.

"I'm going to do this," she said out loud. "I have to do this. No one is going to stop me; not even myself."

* * *

><p>Birkhoff sat at his desk in his office, trying desperately to focus on his work. He was working solidly on some new project that Percy was setting for him. The security on this operation was very tight, mostly because of the attacks from the unknown (at least, unknown to Percy) source. Even though the culprit had been quiet for the past couple of weeks, Division was still on edge about it. No one had gotten close to finding out who was behind the attacks, so they had no idea how to stop them. Therefore, Birkhoff was set to do security work: not that it would do much good. Unless it was absolutely top notch and not done through Birkhoff's regular methods, Imogen would be able to break anything that he set up if she wanted to.<p>

However, there was no indication that she was going to come back again. It seemed to Birkhoff like she was either losing interest or she was planning something huge. If he knew her at all though, Birkhoff suspected that it was the latter and at some point, whether it was in a few minutes, hours, or a matter of days or weeks… Well, he just knew that they hadn't heard the last from her.

"Glad that I'm not on the receiving end of this anger," he muttered.

Despite the fact that she was targeting Division as a whole at this point, Birkhoff felt comfortable in the fact that she wasn't after him. After all, how could she be after everything that they had shared? She hadn't blown his cover, so that was something. In addition to everything that she said to him… he was confident. Birkhoff's only problem now was keeping his head down at Division; he did not want any attention on him unless it was absolutely unavoidable.

* * *

><p>"I told you that I don't need any help," Imogen said, standing opposite Nikita in her loft.<p>

"You aren't experienced in the field; you still have a lot to learn," Nikita replied shortly.

"Do you really think that?" she asked.

"Yes," Michael replied.

"Well, you know what?" Imogen bit back. "You're wrong."

"Somehow, I doubt that," Michael said. "You may have graduated when you were at Division, but that doesn't mean you can do this alone."

"Oh, so I can't handle myself?" she said. "I'll have you know that I have been doing that very thing for many years, I'm good."

"Can we at least see what you know then?" Nikita said, seeming to understand Imogen about taking care of herself for years.

"Fine," she answered. "I don't see why you care so much though."

"This will affect us too you know," Michael said.

"Actually, it won't," Imogen pointed out. "They don't know that I'm working with you…so it won't blow any of your covers. Ever think about that?"

"She has got a point," Nikita said to Michael.

"Even so," Michael started.

"I will show you what I know, if that will shut the both of you up," Imogen interrupted. "I just want to make it clear that I can, in fact, handle my end of this deal. It's just not a one person operation near the end. The beginning; well, I can take care of it."

"Let's just get on with this okay?" Nikita said.

During the next few hours both Nikita and Michael tested Imogen on anything that they could think of. Aside from computer stuff, because neither of the two was at the level of Birkhoff; and Michael conceded that Imogen was skilled enough in that area. Nikita had to step away once, because Alex came in and needed to talk to her about something, but soon she came back and then Alex and Imogen were set to spar against each other.

The only really difficult task to test was Imogen's shooting ability; the loft was actually quite small when it came down to that. However, Imogen was able to shoot really well from across the room to a target, so as long as she was shooting close like that, Nikita thought that she would be alright.

Imogen insisted that she would be able to do sniper shots as well, but Michael thought that she would be better off getting closer to her targets.

After Imogen left the loft, Nikita turned to Michael.

"At least we have a Birkhoff on our side," she said. "From what you have said, she is very good with computers."

"The best we can get a hold of I think," Michael said.

* * *

><p>"I haven't heard from you in awhile," Birkhoff said when Imogen contacted him that night, this time with audio.<p>

"I know, I've been busy," she responded.

"Doing what exactly?" Birkhoff asked.

The two of them were on a secure line that couldn't be traced. Imogen had left a note for Birkhoff on the thing that she had used to talk to him before, with the location of the device that he was now using.

"A lot of different things really," Imogen lied. "I've just been really preoccupied lately, that's all."

"Alright then," Birkhoff said, not really believing what she said. "How long is this call going to last?"

"Depends on how long we talk for," Imogen said. "But not that long I'm afraid, and you have to get rid of the evidence afterwards; just to be on the safe side."

"Right, right," Birkhoff said. "So how have you been? Aside from busy doing whatever it is you are doing."

"I've been good B—" she started.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, just a second," she replied.

Imogen seemed to be under the weather with something, she was guessing the flu. IT seemed like she was nauseous, though it was only today, and her forehead seemed to be heating up a little, though that could be her imagination. She wasn't exactly sure.

Once she got back to Birkhoff, she immediately apologized.

"Sorry about that," she said to him. "I guess that I haven't been really good, I think I might be coming down the flu or something."

"Well that sucks," he said. "I hope you get better."

"So do I," she responded. "I've got to go somewhere in a couple days; I don't want everything to be turned to shit because of it."

"I would ask where you are going," Birkhoff said. "But I think I know that you wouldn't tell me if I did. But I do know that even if you are sick, you'll be fine."

"Maybe, maybe not," she said. "Depends on how sick I get. Last time I was really sick…well, let's just say it wasn't that good for me; didn't get out of bed for weeks."

"I'm sure it won't come to that," he said. "Listen, I've been meaning to tell you something…"

"I'm so sorry, but I have to get going," she said. "Make sure you get rid of the evidence okay?"

"Okay," he said, and before Birkhoff could say anything else, Imogen was gone.

Imogen knew that they could have spoken for longer, but she was getting really paranoid about him getting caught. Besides, she was absolutely exhausted and, since she was going to be preparing to execute part one of her mission in the next few days…well, she really needed to focus.

"The best way to get better when you are sick is to get lots of rest," she told herself, remembering advice that her mother once gave her. "Which means… bed time for me."

Imogen jumped in the shower when she was getting ready for bed; a cold one, trying to get the fever or whatever it was to go away faster. She knew that blankets were really good for this type of thing, but her body was screaming at her to cool it off. Once she did that, Imogen collapsed into bed for what she was hoping would be a dreamless, or at least really deep and restful with no interruptions, sleep. Hopefully she would feel better within the next two days: she had a mission to prepare for and it was not going to be easy, no matter what she told herself.


	33. One Girl Revolution

**A/N: Yay for updates! Third last chapter here folks, it's almost over! Or will it be over, will there be a sequel? Maybe, I don't know yet! XD Anyways, I am going to be working on the final chapter in the next few days, so you might be getting the second last one soon. I hope that everyone enjoys this chapter. As I am sure you know, or will find out at least, that this chapter is set during Glass Houses. Read on!**

* * *

><p>Car rides sucked. Majorly.<p>

Imogen had been preparing for this mission for ages, packing and then choosing her weapon. Now she was faced with a long-ish car ride to find her target. For this stage, she really wasn't going to have any help at all with the execution, so it was completely different from her graduation mission at Division. This was all her plan; no one else really had any huge impact on it. So…this was her first intentional kill or the first one that she really, truly wanted to do.

The more she thought about this, the more she was thinking about what it was ca=osting her. Was doing all of this going to cost her, her humanity? Imogen was trying to make sure that going for this revenge wasn't consuming her whole life; but it kind of was. IT was preventing her from moving forward with things, as she had thought probably a million times before.

However, Imogen decided to at least try to dismiss every other thought that was not about this mission for the time being. She had a lead on the people who had actually murdered her family; Cleaners, they were called. No matter what, she did not want to miss this window of opportunity, even if she was alone.

Imogen also knew that Birkhoff was extremely irritated with her not talking to him much, or telling him the details of her plan… but she just couldn't do it. She had a feeling that he was on edge because of Percy, and she hated to put even more pressure on him.

"Still, I can do this," she reassured herself.

* * *

><p>"Here is Winters' tracker ID," Birkhoff said, handing the device over to Michael. "Word of advice, don't let her catch you spying on her. These guardians are tightly wound freaks, just like their boss."<p>

"Percy's giving you trouble huh" Michael said, looking at the device and then back at Birkhoff.

"Uh God, the man is freaking out. He needs to chill," Birkhoff said. "I have been on twenty four seven black box duty all month."

"I guess Nikita's got him pretty rattled," Michael said.

"Yeah, right. Whatever," Birkhoff said, sounding annoyed.

He couldn't help but think about Imogen at that moment; he knew that she was causing problems with her attacks, though she had been quiet for a bit.

"What?" Michael asked, sounding confused.

"Just try and pretend, I am not an idiot okay?" Birkhoff said, more annoyance creeping into his voice. "Just, give me that much."

"What are you talking about" Michael asked, looking a little rattled.

"What am I talking about" Birkhoff said incredulously. "This isn't about Nikita and you know it. It's about Operation Sparrow."

"What's Operation Sparrow" Michael immediately asked.

"Didn't I just ask you not to do that" Birkhoff said, letting out a sarcastic laugh. "I am going to find out what it is in a couple weeks when the operation goes active anyway, so you may as well tell me now."

"Couple of weeks?" Michael asked, this time sounding even more confused than before.

"Oh crap. You don't know?"Birkhoff asked, looking like he just got caught doing something terrible…oh if Percy found out he spilled the beans.

"Know about what?" Michael asked.

"Nothing," Birkhoff replied, avoiding Michael's question.

"Seymour," Michael said in a warning tone.

He stepped towards Birkhoff who had turned away from him to work on the computer. Michael reached out one hand and whipped Birkhoff's chair around; forcing Birkhoff to look at him in the eyes.

"You're right about one thing. Whatever Operation Sparrow is I will be briefed before you," Michael said, in a dark tone of voice. "If you want advanced word then you better give me yours now."

"I got nothing man. Operation Sparrow. That's it," Birkhoff explained nervously. "Percy's been hiding all the prep work on the black boxes."

"Don't you send the updates?" Michael asked.

"I encrypt them while he watches me. Look, all I know is it's going down soon and it's big," Birkhoff said. "Whatever it is."

* * *

><p><em>A couple hours later…<em>

"Do you think she's there yet Michael?" Nikita asked, referring to Imogen.

"No, don't worry about that right now alright?" Michael said. "Just worry about getting to Plainview and locating the guardian. She already said herself that she doesn't want our help with this stage; she obviously has a plan."

"You know as well as I do that she isn't that experience in the field, no matter what she may tell us," Nikita argued.

"Doesn't matter," Michael interrupted. "It is out of our hands now; she is on her way there. Trust me, I will hear about it once it happens, whether something goes wrong and she gets caught or if she succeeds. Now focus Nikita, focus. Don't think about Alex either, she can handle herself."

* * *

><p>The actual drive was even worse than Imogen had suspected it would be. She was nervous and shaking the entire way there; just thinking about what was going to happen. She had a hard time concentrating on the road, and she almost went into the ditch more than once. However, she was able to somewhat keep from completely losing it by just talking herself the entire way there.<p>

"It's okay," she said aloud. "You are bound to be nervous, this is a big event. But you know what you have to do this. And you can do this; and once it is over, you can move on to the next part; you will be one step closer to avenging your family."

She drove and drove, but at one point she had to actually pull over. Imogen unbuckled her seatbelt and ran out of the car and to the bushes, retching once she got there. She was still sick, and all this stress and nervousness was not helping her one bit.

"Just calm down," she muttered, wiping her mouth with an old t-shirt sitting in the back of her car. "Get your act together, or you will be killed today!"

Imogen got back into the car and continued her drive, focusing on calming her breathing and just not over thinking her plan. She knew exactly what she needed to do to make it succeed; there was no point in going over the details constantly in her brain; it would just keep stressing her out.

* * *

><p>"We got a problem. I am sitting outside the Guardian's house right now," Nikita said to Michael on the comm unit.<p>

"Did she spot you?" Michael asked.

"No, but I don't think we are going to be able to pull this off in time," Nikita replied.

"I am reading she is in close proximity to her house right now," Michael explained, looking at the tracking signal.

"I know. I've got her tracker in my hand, I just don't know where she is," Nikita said. "Pretty clever on Winter's end. Percy checks her tracker looks like she is in town living at her appointed residence."

"For all we know she is sitting on some beach in the tropics. We have to scrap this mission. The clock is ticking and I need to get to Plainview for appearances. Maybe we can go to dinner, right before I tell Percy his Guardian is gone," Michael said.

"Unless we don't. What if she is still here?" Nikita asked

"What are you saying? You think she removed the tracker and stayed in Plainview?" Michael said in disbelief.

"Just hear me out. All the black boxes are kept at banks right?" Nikita said. "Guardian protocol. There are 3 banks in Plainview and only one of them has safety deposit boxes."

* * *

><p>Birkhoff sat in his office, alone. Percy had not gotten any better about his paranoia with Operation Sparrow at all. He was constantly coming to Birkhoff, telling him this and that, forcing him to do certain things and agree to others that he would do in the future. But now… now there was something to worry about. Apparently Nikita was in Plainview and Birkhoff was needed in Operations.<p>

When he got there, he immediately got on the comm unit with Michael.

"What's the latest Intel you have on Nikita's position?" a Division agent asked.

"Working on that as we speak. I am throwing a net over the whole town," Birkhoff said into the unit. "Every phone, camera and computer be mine!"

"Our priority is the box. We head to the bank first," he heard Michael say.

"Damn man; just ignore me then why don't you?" Birkhoff said, frustrated as he started to hack Plainview.

He kept working for a little while, but listened to everything that was going on. He heard when they were at the bank, and everything that happened there, what they found… or didn't find rather.

"It was Nikita. The Black Box is gone. We were too late," Michael said to a Division agent.

"Hold that thought. Just got a voice print match on Dana Winters," Birkhoff said, finally making a breakthrough on his work. "She used a CB radio to contact local law enforcement she said she was on Main St. and Oak. Less than a mile from the bank."

It didn't take the Division strike team and Michael long to find Dana; she was exactly where Birkhoff said she would be. However, Birkhoff knew that his work was not done yet, so he continued to search for Nikita; on the off chance that she was still in Plainview. That being said, he still kept one ear listening to what was happening on Michael's end; just so that he knew what was going on and when he was needed.

"Agent Winters. Why haven't you answered your phone" Michael asked.

"It was damaged," Dana Winters replied.

"Why were you talking to local law enforcement?" one of the Division agents with Michael asked.

"I was using them to search for Nikita," Dana lied.

"Do you know where she is?" another Division agent asked.

"I haven't seen her since she attacked me but I figured she'd make a play for the black box," Dana lied again. "So I told the Police she is behind the hit on the bank."

Just then, Birkhoff hit a breakthrough on his search for Nikita; he just could not believe what he had found. Nikita, for whatever reason, was still in Plainview… in a hardware store, with some kid!

"Guys you are not going to believe this," Birkhoff said into the comm unit. "My facial recon scan just got a match on Nikita. I picked it up on a security camera feed at a local hardware store. Looks like she is in there right now with some kid."

Birkhoff listened to a little bit more of the feed from Michael's end, but then he just turned it off and left Operations.

"My part is done," he told himself. "Now it's just up to them."

However, he didn't get a free ride by any means at this time. Percy was planning some sort of "loyalty test" for Michael, and Birkhoff was supposed to tell him certain things about those who could crack the black boxes. Percy had already eliminated several threats, but there was still one more person aside from Birkhoff himself (and Imogen for that matter, but Percy didn't realize that she could hack into a black box as well).

* * *

><p>Imogen parked her car in a location that was as hidden as she could make it. Since she knew that the agents would be in a secluded location, it was more difficult, but she did the best that she could. She opened the trunk of her vehicle, looking at the weapons that she had inside it. Imogen had a couple handguns, one of which she stored in the waistband of her pants. She stuck a knife in her boot, like Nikita had suggested to her. She slipped off her shirt for a moment, strapping on a bulletproof vest on before she put it back on. She then zipped up her fake leather jacket, and grabbed the other gun.<p>

She stood there just waiting for a moment, and took a deep breath. It should be simple for her, get in, kill, and get out… but now she wasn't so sure.

"Stop thinking that," she berated herself. "It's time go in…"

* * *

><p><strong>dun dun dunnnn!<strong>


	34. In For The Kill

**A/N: Second to last chapter everyone! I do have the final chapter already written, and personally I think it will blow everyone's mind (not to mention the length of it!). I will not be posting it right away however; you will have to wait just a little bit longer. I would like to go over what's going to happen though. There will be no author's note at the beginning,, instead a dedication will take its place. At the end of it though, I will be addressing the subject of a sequel and any other relevant material. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy it! As always, check my profile for the song for this chapter!**

* * *

><p>"<em>I'm going in for the kill.<br>I'm doing it for a thrill.  
>I'm hoping you'll understand,<br>and not let go of my hand."_

* * *

><p>"Birkhoff!" Michael shouted, walking into his office.<p>

"Michael, dude!" Birkhoff said, immediately taking off his headphones and rushing towards him. "Listen to me man, just listen. You have to kill Nikita. I know, tortured reluctance and everything. You have to."

"Birkhoff, you look like you need some air," Michael said as he listened to Birkhoff's erratic speech.

"You think?" Birkhoff said incredulously. "I'm on lockdown here, Michael. Confined to Division. Did you see those two DELTOIDS OVER THERE? They have to follow me everywhere I go. They even accompany to the bathroom, Michael."

"Percy ordered this?" Michael asked.

"He doesn't want her to learn about Sparrow before it's hatched," Birkhoff explained. "He thinks she's going to try and decrypt black box number three, and he is convinced she's going to try to put a gun to my head to do it."

"Yeah, that's pretty crazy," Michael said, thoughts whirring around in his head.

"That's just the beginning. Keeping me here under lock and key is just phase one. Percy is taking out everyone who even has a chance of breaking the encryption," Birkhoff said.

"Who's he targeting?" Michael asked.

"Targeted," Birkhoff corrected, moving over to his computer."A math professor at Cambridge, a computer scientist in Bangalore…"

"These three can crack the box?" Michael asked.

"We'll never know," Birkhoff laughed. "And after they crypt this last cryptographer… I'll be the only one left that can do it, and I will never, ever see the sun again."

_Or Imogen for that matter…_ Birkhoff thought to himself.

"Until you take care of Nikita," Birkhoff continued.

"Malcolm Mitchell," Michael said, leaning closer to the screen. "Electrical engineer consultant with the CIA… Percy's going after a company man?"

"And all because Nikki has his third Horcrux," Birkhoff said. "And I thought she was supposed to be protecting the innocent."

Birkhoff watched Michael for a little while before he turned back to the computer. Michael left shortly after that, noticing that Birkhoff wasn't going to be talking anymore. Birkhoff hated what he had to do; this stupid loyalty test. He was getting sick and tired of turning a blind eye to Division, and he was starting to think that maybe Nikita and Imogen had the right idea. The only problem was he didn't have a window of opportunity to get out like they did; he was stuck here for good. Percy would eliminate Malcolm Mitchell and then he, Birkhoff, would be stuck inside Division for the rest of his life or until Nikita was caught. Really, the two things should be the same because somehow Birkhoff knew that Nikita wasn't going to be dying anytime soon.

"Guess that I am stuck here," He muttered.

A few minutes later, and Amanda walked into his office.

"Yes?" Birkhoff asked.

"Just wanted to let you know that Percy is not to be disturbed, under any circumstances," Amanda said. "Understood?"

"Yeah," Birkhoff replied.

Amanda didn't say anything else after that, just turned around and left Birkhoff's office.

"Well, this can't be good," Birkhoff muttered to himself.

* * *

><p>Elsewhere, Imogen was making her way towards the house where she knew the Division agents were hiding. She was moving slowly, flitting from tree to tree, making sure that she could not be spotted or heard as she got closer. It was important that Imogen had the element of surprise; it would make things go so much easier that way.<p>

It was taking a long time sure, since she had to make sure that she had eyes inside. Imogen was waiting for the opportune moment to strike; if she made one wrong move, then… well she didn't really want to think about that. The other thing that was slowing her down was the fact that every so often she would feel an intense urge to throw up; something that she knew she had to avoid. If they came out and saw puke somewhere, they would know that someone was watching them, evne if they couldn't actually see her.

_Come on, Come on you can do this, _she thought to herself. _Just forget about how sick you feel…forget about Birkhoff…. Just focus on the task at hand. You are going to be successful, and Division will not catch you again._

For some reason, Imogen found it suspiciously quiet around the house. She knew where the agents were and all of that, but she was expecting a lot more security than what was present; it was a bit too easy right now…

"Something's up," she muttered.

However she had no time to really think about that, and she settled into a safe hiding spot to monitor the house until everything was in place for her attack. Imogen wasn't sure how long she was sitting there for, it can't have been that long, but when she was nearly ready to move…. There was a sharp pain to the back of her head and then everything went dark.

* * *

><p>"Birkhoff, what part of do not disturb, do you not understand?" Percy asked in an angry tone as he walked into Operations.<p>

"Nikita has Malcolm," Birkhoff explained.

"What does Malcolm need to crack the box?" Percy asked.

"If he even has a hope of cracking the box, he needs access to the scif room at CIA headquarters," Birkhoff told Percy.

"Then we know who she'll be calling," Percy said, not missing a beat. "Have a survey team track Ryan Fletcher; and stay on top of it this time."

"You want me to run the survey?" Birkhoff asked.

"I'm working another angle," Percy said, before leaving the room.

Once Percy was gone, Birkhoff immediately did what he was asked to do, even if he was uncomfortable with the request and was confused at the same time. He didn't want to get into any trouble.

The only upside to this whole debacle and Operation Sparrow, in Birkhoff's opinion, was that all eyes in Division were focused on this instead of on Imogen. Birkhoff knew that, probably right this very minute in fact, she was up to something. Despite the fact that Birkhoff wanted her to abandon whatever it was she was doing and just…hide and keep herself safe, he knew that she was a stubborn as anything and would not budge on this. He had to admit that if their roles were switched and he was the one out there with that issue… he would probably try and do the same thing; though Birkhoff wasn't sure if he would be able to succeed.

* * *

><p>When Imogen woke up she was tied to a chair with three Division agents sitting and standing opposite her.<p>

"Is this how you want to play it?" she asked. "Really? Do you guys have some sick fantasy that you are trying to play out here?"

"Just stop talk bitch, alright?" one of them said.

"It was really stupid of you to come here," another added.

"Stupid? I don't really think so," Imogen argued. "How else was I supposed to get my revenge for my family?"

"If you really wanted revenge, why didn't you just go to the one who ordered this?" the first man said. "Now we're just going to have to kill you too, you realize that right?"

"Somehow," Imogen started. "Somehow I don't think that I am going to die today."

Imogen knew that she didn't have her guns anymore; but she did have her hands, and if she played it right… she would be able to escape the flimsy rope bonds and get out of the chair. It wasn't how she imagined this mission going; she would have been out by now if all had gone well, but what mattered was that she turn the tables on them and win this fight.

"Well then, little girl," the third Division agent said. "You're wrong; because you will die today and then you can join Mommy and Daddy in hell."

"You know what?" she said, starting to work on getting out of the bonds.

"What?" a Division agent said.

"What with all of the training that goes on at Division," she continued. "I'm surprised that you weren't trained better for this kind of situation."

"We're doing just fine," one agent said. "We caught you pretty easy, I would say that is good work."

"Oh you might have caught me," Imogen said. "But you haven't done a very good job at keeping me."

"You're still in the chair," another agent said.

"Not anymore I'm not," Imogen said.

She let the ropes tying her hands fall to the floor, and then quickly ripped off the binds tying her feet together. She was free and extremely pissed off.

* * *

><p>Birkhoff was in Operations, looking at the footage of his survey team trailing Ryan Fletcher, who was on the phone.<p>

"Okay fellas, back off. Nikita might have tipped him off he's being followed," he told them, scanning the footage for any trace of Nikita.

Birkhoff saw that he found a duffel bag, and was heading towards the Metro, so he knew that he had to warn the team of agents.

"If he makes it to the subway it's going to be a lot harder to tail him," Birkhoff explained.

"What do you want us to do?" one of the two agents asked.

"We must have spooked him," Birkhoff said. "Can't let him run off with the box… Grab the bag, it's got to be in there."

Birkhoff watched his men wrestle the bag away from Fletcher, and then run off in the other direction. As they were running, Birkhoff realized that they need to make sure that they had the box.

"Check the bag," he ordered. "Make sure it's in there."

The agents stopped where they were and unzipped the bag, which then exploded in blue paint and dollar bills.

"Oh hell no!" Birkhoff cursed. "No, just don't, don't try to blend in. Just get out of there. Get out of there!"

Birkhoff was uttering every single curse word that he knew in his brain, covering his face with his hands as he watched, or listened rather, to his agents getting away from the scene. He wondered for a moment if this would get him into serious trouble with Percy, but then had to shake off that thought and get back to work.

* * *

><p>The three Division agents sprang into action almost immediately after Imogen had escaped her bonds. She had to applaud them for that; however they seemed to forget about guns and they just went with their hands. She punched and kicked any part of their bodies that she could get a hold of, until one of them grabbed her arms and held her in place.<p>

"Big mistake," she said, before lashing out her legs and kicked the other two agents in their faces.

She then brought her legs back and twisted one so that she kneed the other Division agent in the balls. He went down quite easily, and she made a break for the table where her guns were sitting.

"Stupid, stupid people," she muttered to herself.

Unfortunately, Imogen did not make it to the table with her guns, and one of the agents on the ground grabbed her ankle, pulling her down to the floor. Instinctively, Imogen put her hands down to break her fall, so nothing but her hands and her legs hit the ground. She then jerked her leg out to the agent's grasp, hitting him in the face once again.

"You little bitch," he spat, blood coming out of his mouth.

Imogen scrambled to her feet as fast as she could, but combined with the other agents trying to grab her by the waist or other places, she was barely able to reach one of her guns. She kicked back once more and then spun around. She pointed the gun in the face of the first agent, and shot him in the forehead three times.

"Any other takers?" she said menacingly.

The remaining two Division agents were on their feet, and again seemed to have forgotten about their guns, ready to fight her. They came at her at the same time, but Imogen was still able to fight them off with elbows to the face. The agents did manage to knock her down to the floor and onto her back, but in the struggle to make that happen she ended up shooting another one of them in the chest.

Now that it was one on one, it was more intense and nerve wracking for her. The final agent, seemingly the smartest one because he had grabbed her other gun, was facing her and pointing it into her face.

"Lower your weapon," he said.

"Make me," she spat at him.

"We were only following orders," the man said to her.

"I don't really give a damn," she answered. "You still did it, that's not going to change. He had a family, and I was just a little baby at the time. Did you really think about that? What you were doing? I don't think so!"

"You don't understand," he began. "She forces us to do these things; they all do in Division. You would get that if you had been there."

"Oh I know full well what its like," she said, still not lowering her weapon. "Because I was there. And you know what I know? You always have a choice."

Those words were the last ones that she said to him before shooting him multiple times in the face and heart. She felt really stone cold when she did this, but now… now it was over with; she had gotten the people that had directly killed her family.

"I'm coming for you," she said to herself, referring to Amanda. "Your worst nightmare."

* * *

><p><strong>;) Looking forward to the finale?<strong>


	35. The Call

**For the final chapter, I want to dedicate this to all of my reviewers. You guys have been so great and I love that you let me know what you thought about this story, and I cannot thank you enough. Especially the reviewer who has reviewed every single chapter! She knows who she is :)**

* * *

><p>"<em>And then that word grew louder and louder,<br>Until it was a battle cry.  
>I'll come back,<br>When you call me,  
>No need to say goodbye…"<em>

* * *

><p>The ride back to the city was oddly calming for Imogen. She was still in shock that she had gone through with the mission, but the anger had been bubbling up in her veins. She wasn't a real killer; she wasn't like Division agents… She only went after the people who had wronged her. She felt remorse for those agents that she had just killed, but she was always reminded of the pain that they had inflicted on her and her parents. And even though Imogen knew that two wrongs did not make a right, and her parents wouldn't be brought back by this… it sure as hell made her feel a little bit better.<p>

As she drove Imogen tried to call Michael and Nikita; but there was no answer. She kept trying every few minutes, just in case, but after a little while she started to get a bad feeling that something had gone wrong. She started to get incredibly worried, and had to stop herself from pulling over and trying to get into contact with Birkhoff.

"Their safety is important," she reminded herself.

Imogen was right in that; she was safe for the time being, but obviously Nikita and Michael weren't. And if they were in danger, Birkhoff was probably in it with them or just trying to lay low.

"Concentrate," she told herself. "Just concentrate on getting back to the city."

Imogen thought about what she had to do once she got back to the city, and decided that it was really simple. She would have to pack up her apartment, check Nikita's loft… and then go from there. Obviously things weren't safe anymore, so Imogen knew that she had to abandon her place. The only question was if there were any clues in Nikita's loft. If there were, then she could go from there… if not, well, Imogen thought that a trip to Division was long overdue.

* * *

><p>Birkhoff walked into the prison-like room where one of Michael's arms was chained so he could barely move. Michael maneuvered himself and turned around when he heard the footsteps.<p>

"Didn't expect you," he said.

"Ditto," Birkhoff replied, not sounding happy at all.

"What does Percy want you to tell me now?" Michael asked, watching Birkhoff walk to the other side of the room.

"I just came to say good bye," Birkhoff said shortly.

"Good bye," Michael replied after a second of complete silence.

Birkhoff began to walk back across the room and towards the door, not intending to say anything else to Michael. However, the intense emotion that he was feeling at this betrayal combined with the thoughts of Imogen, he just couldn't hold it in. So when he snapped at Michael…. A part of him wished that he could ask Imogen a few of the same questions. IT was a little part, but still there.

"Was it worth it?" Birkhoff asked, whipping around to face Michael.

"What do you care?" Michael said back at him.

"I just find it semi disturbing, that the one person I was supposed to be able to trust in here was lying to my face!" he half yelled.

"Trust?" Michael said.

"Yeah, trust!" Birkhoff snapped. "You know, we're supposed to be friends!"

"Yea, I know you set me up, Birkhoff," Michael countered. "Percy told you to bait me so I could fell into his trap. When you asked me what Operation Sparrow was, you already knew!"

"No I didn't!" Birkhoff protested.

"You were dropping breadcrumbs, and I fell for it, because I decided to trust you," Michael continued, ignoring Birkhoff.

"I didn't know it was a set-up okay?" Birkhoff snapped. "Yes, Percy told me that you would be coming and he told me what to say. When I asked him why, he made it sound like it was one of his stupid little loyalty tests, okay?"

"You're not stupid Birkhoff," Michael stated. "You're just a coward. You know Percy is corrupt, but you turn a blind eye to save your own skin."

* * *

><p>Imogen was running around her apartment, packing everything that she could manage to fit in her suitcases and duffel bags. She went through what was necessary for her to bring, like her computer equipment, versus the things that she could live without. She ran up and down the stairs, shoving everything into her vehicle. Even if she didn't bring the stuff with her, Imogen had sorted out a safe place to store her things: a large storage container. She had given the people strict instructions on who was allowed to access the container; only her and Birkhoff. Otherwise, they were not to allow anyone, under any circumstances, to get in it.<p>

"Come on, come on!" she muttered to herself, waiting for the light to change to green.

She had to make several trips back and forth so that she could get the items she didn't need out of her apartment and to the container. But it was finally time; she had officially abandoned her apartment and was now driving around town, going over to Nikita's loft. Imogen attached the key to the storage container to her necklace while waiting for the light to change, and then made a sharp turn once it did. She didn't know what she would find, but Imogen felt a bad feeling rise up in her gut. Something was coming; she knew that much.

* * *

><p>For what seemed like a long time, but in reality was a split second, Birkhoff was yelling inside his own head: he knew that he still shouldn't reveal anything. He just wanted to yell at Michael.<p>

_NO! I am not a coward, nor do I turn a blind eye to save my own skin. I turn a blind eye because I am trying to help the woman I care about the most in this world. Tell me, how is protecting her being a coward? _

Birkhoff couldn't yell or speak to Michael about that though, since he started speaking again.

"That's your choice," Michael said calmly. "But you have to live with it."

"You know what?" Birkhoff snapped again. "You even sound like her now."

"That's because my eyes are open," Michael said. "Nikita's right-"

"NO! Nikita is DEAD!" Birkhoff interrupted. "She's dead Michael; I was listening in over the comm. She d-… I warned her about what would happen if she went up against Percy. You warned her too, and then you went and joined her; encouraged her. That was your choice."

Birkhoff couldn't stand to look at Michael anymore, so he turned on his heel and left. The look on Michael's face… Birkhoff was just intensely grateful that their place weren't switched and he had just been told that Imogen was dead. He felt Michael's pain; he just didn't want it to happen to him. How could he be so angry if he was so worried about Imogen?

* * *

><p>There was nothing there; absolutely nothing. No one was around in Nikita's loft, and there was no sign of where they might have gone. Imogen searched every inch of the place that she could, all the while being careful not to displace anything. She finally came to a small container on one of the tables. When Imogen opened it she noticed that it was full of syringes, but that one was missing.<p>

"What was in here?" she muttered to herself. "What did they do?"

Imogen kept searching the loft, but she didn't come any closer to finding anything that would point her in the right direction. Finally, she just decided to give up the search. Something told her that she might as well make a trip to Division: if she could get in and out without being noticed. Imogen was confident that would be possible, especially since she got the feeling that Division was preoccupied and wouldn't be paying as much attention to their internal security.

Since her heart was pounding in anticipation, the drive to Division didn't take very long. Well, the drive to as close as she could get, Imogen still had to walk a little ways to get to the silo entrance. Once she descended, Imogen removed her shoes and held onto them as she climbed down. As soon as she reached the bottom she left her shoes on the platform, going into the tunnels with bare feet. She was trying to make sure that she would make as little noise as possible, and going barefoot was sure to grant her a better chance of being invisible to everyone else. She was actually incredibly surprised that the silo wasn't sealed off, but, since she couldn't take any risks… Imogen decided that she would have to take a different exit from the tunnels instead of the one she used to escape. She needed to protect herself.

Imogen padded silently down the halls of Division, looking around every corner as she went, making sure that the coast was clear. She could go to Operations, but she suspected that just walking in would not go over too well. Plus there was the feeling that she should really be going to Birkhoff's office. It was like a tugging in her stomach, pulling her there.

After a few more minutes, Imogen was in the hall that lead straight to Birkhoff's office. Suddenly, she felt extremely nervous. She wasn't sure how he was going to react to seeing her there; after all she did leave him here. Imogen remembered that he hadn't been to angry when she spoke to him the last time, but there were no guarantees. But, steeling herself, she walked straight into his office to find him there with his back to her.

"B?" she said aloud.

He jumped at the sound of her voice, and turned around.

"Imogen?" he said, shocked at her appearance in Division. "What are you doing here?"

"I… needed to see you," she said.

"Do you know how dangerous this is?" he asked.

"I know," she replied.

"If we're caught, we're dead," Birkhoff pointed out.

"I know," she repeated.

"You really shouldn't be here," he continued.

"I know," she said adamantly.

"You should go," he said.

"You don't want me to," Imogen said, taking a step towards him.

"I want you to be safe," he replied.

"But do you want me to be miserable?" she asked, coming in closer.

"Of course I don't," he said after a brief pause.

"I didn't think so," Imogen said, before closing the distance between the two of them and wrapping her arms around him.

Birkhoff immediately responded, hugging her close.

"I missed you," he whispered.

"I missed you too," she replied, burying her face in his shoulder.

When they parted, Birkhoff and Imogen went over to sit on the couch. He moved in to give her a kiss, but she backed away.

"Are you still sick?" he asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "And I still don't know what's wrong."

"I'm sure that you will get better," he said to her.

"Thank you," Imogen replied. "How've you been?"

"Really swamped, to be quite honest," Birkhoff confessed. "There's been so much activity around her I don't know which way is up anymore."

"Do you think it will calm down?" she asked, while thinking of her mission.

They must have been preoccupied with something else and didn't realize what was going on with her or the agents. It was a good thing for Imogen, but not so great for Michael or Nikita.

Birkhoff's and Imogen's conversation was cut short by a voice calling out for Birkhoff.

"You're wanted in Operations," it said, getting louder as it came closer.

"Shit," Birkhoff cursed. "Hide right now!"

Imogen didn't need telling twice and immediately hid in the first place that she found. She heard Birkhoff talking to the owner of the voice for a brief moment, before she heard someone leave the room. Imogen didn't know who had left, so she stayed in her hiding place until she heard the remaining person speak.

"You can come out now," Birkhoff said.

She emerged from her hiding place and quickly walked over to him.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," he replied. "But I have to go to Operations."

"Alright," she responded.

"And you know what?" he said.

"What?" she asked.

"I don't care if you are sick," he said, before pulling her close and giving her a soft kiss.

Imogen immediately responded by wrapping her arms around his neck. After a couple more moments, Birkhoff pulled away from her.

"I really should be going," he said. "No need for goodbyes, I will see you in a few minutes."

Imogen just smiled at him and watched Birkhoff walk away from her and out of his office. She just continued to stand there for a couple more seconds, before she sprang into action. She climbed up into the vents and crawled around, looking for Operations. Normally she would have just listened in at the door, but by the sounds of things; it was not a good idea to do that.

"It took a long time to crack the company," Imogen heard Birkhoff say.

She had found her vantage point, and though it was difficult to see anything going on in Operations, Imogen could still heard everything.

"I start kicking around in there, CIA blue team's going to shut my own back door in my face," Birkhoff continued. "Could be a one shot deal."

"If it's the shot that takes Nikita down then it's worth doing," Percy answered, speaking slowly.

"Nikita?" Birkhoff said in shock.

Imogen's mind was racing; what was going on here?

"Get to work, all of you!" Percy ordered.

Imogen heard the sound of feet clad in heels go into Operations and she knew it could only be one person; Amanda.

"Did Birkhoff just say what I think he did?" Amanda asked. "How?"

_Now is NOT the time Imogen, you know that you have to wait,_ she told herself.

"Her little protégé double-crossed us," Percy answered.

_Alex?_ Imogen thought.

"Used a paralytic to fake her death," he said. "straight out of our own playbook."

"Do you want to kill her yourself, or should I just get it over with?" Amanda asked.

"Okay we're in!" Imogen heard Birkhoff explain. "I don't know for how long."

"Just do it and get back up here," Percy said to Amanda.

Imogen heard Amanda walked out of the room, and then turned her attention back to those still in there.

"What happens when we find her?" she heard Birkhoff ask.

"I have a sleeper agent on the inside; S.R.U supervisor," Percy said. "Point him which way to go, and he'll take her down."

"What the hell is she doing at the CIA anyway?" Birkhoff asked.

'What do you think? She'll expose Division," Percy snapped. "All of us."

"That's suicide… for her," Birkhoff said, sounding confused. "She was a part of this."

"She knows that, so she'll make a lot of noise while keeping attention away from herself," Percy said. "Her approach will be low profile and asymmetrical, which is why I want all eyes on every corner of every screen. She will be invisible to the human eye except for YOURS because YOU'RE PAYING ATTENTION!"

Imogen almost had to wince; Percy was yelling that loud.

"Got her; I see her," Birkhoff said.

Imogen's ears perked up as she couldn't see the screens right.

"Where?" Percy asked.

After a brief pause, Imogen heard it.

"Front door," Birkhoff said.

_Time to roll_, Imogen thought, crawling away from Operations.

She had all of the information that she needed; she was headed to Langley… Nikita would not be able to do this alone.

Once Imogen was out of Division, she took a moment to look back.

"Goodbye B," she said, holding back tears.

* * *

><p>"Langley PBX system is down," Birkhoff said, fifteen minutes later. "Nobody's calling into that scif room unless they got a tin can and some string."<p>

"I want to isolate the room from any possible sound frequency. Fire alarm, radio signals, security alert. So a nuclear bomb could go off in there and no one would hear it," Percy said, before picking up his cell phone and dialing. "She's in holding room 113."

Birkhoff looked incredibly nervous as Percy was talking about this, but he kept on following orders. To their surprise Nikita managed to evade the sleeper agent and bust open the scif room, allowing the people inside to get out before the nerve toxin killed them. Shortly after that, Birkhoff made one of the most important decisions to date; he accessed Michael's cell remotely, and set him free. Someone had to do something. Soon after he did that, Birkhoff got up from his seat in Operations and headed back to his office; eager to see Imogen.

* * *

><p>It didn't take Imogen very long to reach the CIA; she sped down the roads in her car, getting as close as she possibly could before abandoning it in a safe place and making her way there. She wasn't sure if she would be able to get inside, but to her great surprise it wasn't that hard. Imogen was all dressed up and she looked like she belonged there, so after deftly swiping someone else's ID badge, she made her way inside without being noticed as an intruder.<p>

* * *

><p>Birkhoff was pacing in his office. Imogen had disappeared, and he had no idea whether or not she had been caught inside Division or if she had just left again. His mind was so preoccupied, so when he heard the cocking of a gun and Michael's voice saying "Don't move" behind him, he was actually startled.<p>

"Mikey…" he began

"Shut UP!" he said. "I want you, to decrypt that!"

A black box was shoved in Birkhoff's face_. Oh great,_ he thought.

"Just listen to me," he tried to say.

"I said shut UP!" Michael yelled.

"She's alive," Birkhoff said quickly.

"What?" Michael said, pausing for a moment.

"Nikki's alive," Birkhoff repeated. "She just tanked Percy's whole plan, Who do you think let you out of your cell? I did it remotely; I own this place, remember?"

"Why?" Michael asked.

"Well, I figure if Nikki can continue to give this hell hole the finger, I could at least cross mine behind my back," Birkhoff said, facing Michael. "And I'm not a coward."

_Wouldn't be with Imogen if I was_… he thought.

"Where is she?" Michael asked, lowering his gun.

"She's trapped inside Langley," Birkhoff said.

* * *

><p>Imogen was on a random floor inside Langley, looking for Nikita while trying not to be caught when she heard it.<p>

"Paging special agent Nikki," the voice said; Michael's. "Agent Nikki, please proceed to the nearest phone and dial 626."

Imogen raced to a phone and dialed the number, at the exact same time as Nikita did a couple floors above her.

"Michael?" she heard Nikita say.

"You okay?" he asked

"Oh babe," Nikita said. "I will be when you get me out of here."

"God, get a room," Birkhoff's voice added.

Imogen smirked to herself; typical B.

"Is that Birkhoff?" Nikita asked.

"Yeah, it's… just like old times," Michael said.

"New times Michael," Imogen suddenly said. "And wow, no one noticed that another person was on this line?"

"Oh hush Imogen," Michael said to her.

"Make me," she shot back. "Nikita, I'm a couple floors down from you," she said. "IF you can make it out of Langley, you'll have a ride."

"Right," Nikita replied.

Birkhoff was in shock; Imogen was on the line as well, and as much as he wanted to call out to her, he wasn't sure if she had told Nikita and Michael about them; he didn't want to say anything without her say so.

"Can you get a mobile comm?" Michael asked Nikita.

"Give me a second," Nikit replied, setting down the phone.

"How did you get over there Imogen?" Michael asked her as they heard Nikita getting to work.

"I have skills Michael, geez," she responded, smirking. "You always underestimate me!"

They would have continued the conversation, but Nikita was back on the line.

"S.R.U walkie," Nikita whispered. "Sku tango-four-Charlie, 731."

"Okay," Michael said. "Proceed out into the corridor east of you and make your way north."

A few seconds later, Imogen heard Birkhoff talk again.

"S.R.U headed your way," he said.

"Get rid of them," Michael ordered.

The next few words out of Birkhoff's mouth nearly made Imogen burst into laughter; although she managed to reduce it to silent giggles.

"Unit 12, we have an intruder spotted in collection strategies," Birkhoff said, putting on a fake voice. "Men's lavatory; please respond."

A few more moments passed, and Imogen was still hiding in her place, listening to the instructions that Nikita was being given.

"Alright, here's what we're thinking for the exfil," Michael said.

"Talk to me," she said.

"I have your escape route," Michael told her. "You need to go out with the evidence. Sublevel two."

"I'm here," Nikita said.

"Incinerator room," Michael replied.

That was the last thing that Imogen heard; everyone was cut off; Birkhoff and Michael had been dumped, and no one could contact each other.

"Shit," Imogen cursed.

She quickly got up from her hiding place and raced down the steps and towards the entrance that she came through. Imogen made her way to her vehicle, and staked out the likely route that Nikita would take out of Langley. Imogen wasn't wrong either, she found Nikita quickly.

"Get in the car!" she called out.

Once Nikita was in, Imogen set off down the streets as fast as she could.

"Where to?" she asked Nikita.

"The loft," Nikita replied quickly.

It didn't take long for the two women to arrive there, and Imogen told Nikita that she would wait in the car for her to get done in there, and then they would go as soon as possible. When Nikita reached her loft, she immediately dialed Michael.

"Michael!" she exclaimed.

"Where the hell are you?" he asked.

"I'm safe," she replied. "I rode out of the loading bay in a garbage truck. They were still evacuating the building. I just got home; Imogen drove me the rest of the way."

"You and Imogen aren't safe there," he said, not noticing Birkhoff's head snap towards him in shock and worry.

"Said the man inside Division," Nikita countered.

"Look, Percy's been neutralized for the moment; he has sedatives in his desk drawer," Michael explained. "I'm ten minutes away…"

"Five minutes!" Birkhoff corrected.

"Five minutes, away from walking out of here with a fully decrypted black box," Michael said.

"What?" Nikita breathed.

"It's time to get a good look at the truth," Michael said. "All of it."

"Michael…" Nikita started.

"I'll explain to you later," Michael interrupted. "What's your plan?"

"I'm going to torch the loft," Nikita said. "Meet me and Imogen at the first America building at 24:00 hours."

Michael and Nikita hung up right after that, but before Michael could say anything Birkhoff spoke.

"You mind explaining to me?" he asked.

"Look, for every truth in that box, there's a lie out there in the real world," Michael explained, pointing to the black box. "Innocent people who are being framed for crimes they didn't commit. Corrupt people who are in charge, thanks to crimes that no one knows about! That's got to end."

"So you're just going to go off and play lone ranger?" Birkhoff said. "Forget about Division, man. You're going to have the whole world hunting you down. You're going to be putting Imogen… and Nikita, in danger."

Michael raised his eyebrow at Birkhoff, noticing the sudden addition of Nikita's name to that sentence.

"Yeah," he said slowly, still scanning Birkhoff's face. "I'll try to keep that in mind."

"I'm serious man, be careful," Birkhoff said. "This box is like… the Lost Ark; it is not of this earth. The truth on here is dangerous, and you're not just putting yourself in danger."

"You and I both know that Nikita can, and has, take care of herself," Michael said, taking the black box. "Or is this not about Nikita? Is there something I should know?"

"Let's just say that you're not the only one to fall for one of the recruits; not that either of them is a recruit anymore," Birkhoff confessed.

"Ah, I see," Michael responded. "Well, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for her, but… as I am sure you know; she's a stubborn person."

"I know," he replied. "But it would make me feel better. I know she can't stick around here, it's not safe. And while it's not safe their either, I know that there are some things that she had to do, and I'm not going to be the one to try and stop her."

"Wise man," Michael said. "I'll see you… well, I don't know when, but I'm sure that we will be in touch."

"Goodbye," Birkhoff said, watching as Michael left.

It killed him that he wasn't going to be around Imogen, but he just wasn't ready to completely leave Division behind. Besides, they could use someone on the inside now, and he was still solid with Percy and Amanda; no one had ever suspected him of anything, and he intended to keep it that way for as long as possible.

* * *

><p>Imogen was waiting for Nikita a little ways down the street when she saw Michael pull up.<p>

"Is she down yet?" he asked her, waiting for her as Imogen put all of her stuff and equipment in the back.

"No, she's not," Imogen replied, getting into the back seat. "But the place just started burning, so we better hurry."

"You don't need your car?" Michael asked, zooming down the street.

"I don't… I was going to abandon it soon anyways; trace issues," she answered.

"Right!" Michael said. "Well, there she is!"

Nikita got into the car and immediately hugged Michael.

"You know, I'm getting really sick of people telling me that you're dead," he told her.

"I know," Nikita smiled. "Are you good back there Imogen?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"OH! How did it go today? Were you successful?" Nikita asked.

"Yes, I was," she responded. "It went a little off from my original plan, but it got done."

"That's great," Nikita said.

"Yeah… it is," Imogen said, her mind wandering.

* * *

><p>Imogen was in a convenience store or sorts, in the bathroom. She, along with Michael and Nikita had been travelling for a couple hours, and this was their first stop. Michael was stocking up on gas, Nikita was getting some food and other essential supplies… and Imogen was sitting, waiting for what felt like the longest few minutes of her life.<p>

"I miss you Birkhoff," she whispered, a tear running down the side of her face.

She really wished that he was here with her, or if she was able to get into contact with him… especially considering what she was doing right this second. Imogen had a feeling during the ride, and though she didn't tell Nikita and Michael about it; she knew that it was something important that needed to be done.

Another minute passed, and it was finally time to check. Imogen reached out her hand to the stick sitting on the edge of the countertop, bringing it towards her. She looked down at it, and there it was; staring her in the face.

"I'm pregnant."

* * *

><p><strong>And it's over! Did everyone like the story? I hope so; there was a lot of work involved. Before I talk about a sequel or anything else, I just want to make sure that one thing is clear. When I posted my first poll about the time between The Next Seduction and Pandora; there was a reason and you just found out what that was. I went with 2 and a half months, just so everyone knows!<strong>

**Now, to get down to the subject of a sequel… Only 7 people so far have responded to the poll, one of whom said no to a sequel. That is not enough for me to really put forward the time to do in university, so right now I am undecided as to whether I am or not. I am NOT saying no, but this is how it's going to work. I will be leaving the poll up until the last week of August, and then I will take it down. The other way that you can let me know about a sequel is through a review, or through private message. That can be done during, and after, the poll time. I will be counting both when I think about a sequel.**

**I really do want to write a sequel, but I need to make sure that there will be interest. I am not in high school anymore, and it's not going to be easy for me. So please, please, if you have been reading this story and have not responded to the poll, or let me know through a review or private message…talk to me! If you've been a silent reader, speak up! **

**For the last time (for now)…review and answer the poll! The more response I get, the better the chances are of a sequel, and maybe it will even come earlier if there is a ton of interest (though, not before a couple episodes have aired for season 2)**


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